I Believe In Yesterday
by Leaving-My-Mark
Summary: Season 2 spoilers! It's a week after Emma and Snow's return and everything seems peaceful...until Neal Cassidy shows up at the door. Emma's going to have to face her past whether she likes it or not, and unfortunately, the whole family is going to be witness to it. Secrets come to light and realizations made, and will the old lovers reconcile or has yesterday been forgotten?
1. Stranger at the Door

**A/N: Hey everybody! So this is my first OUAT fanfic, and I'm really surprised I not only wrote one, but that it's a multi-chapter one. I don't know what's wrong with me. The idea of writing a Neal/Emma story just hit me so hard though that I couldn't ignore it any longer. So instead of studying for finals or writing a paper, I ended up writing this.**

**I just really needed to write out how I thought a Neal and Emma reunion would go, and hopefully you guys think it's realistic and in character for everyone!  
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**Do I need a disclaimer? You guys know that Once Upon a Time and the characters don't belong to me, the only thing that sorta does is the plot of this fic.  
**

**So now on with the fic, and if you like it, please, please, please review!  
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It had been a week since Emma and Snow's return to Storybrooke, and yet the celebratory euphoria amongst their family had still not died down. For a few days, Henry had been reluctant to leave his mother's side and Charming had spent a lot of time just holding Snow when he could, having missed her in his arms. The family as whole even spent a great deal of time together even if it was just sitting down at dinner talking or going out to breakfast on Saturday morning or taking a trip to the park.

One thing that became clear during this short time since the mother and daughter's return was that a lot had changed, most of it for the better. Snow and Emma had bonded just as Charming and Henry had. And while Snow hadn't been all too surprised, Emma was shocked to find that Charming had been teaching her son to sword fight and to ride a horse.

But while all that was wonderful, Emma secretly had to say that the greatest thing to come from all of this, and the greatest surprise, too, was that Henry was beginning to call her 'mom' a lot more. It was funny, seeing as how just a year or so ago, she had been doing her best to forget she had had a son and the idea of being a mom would've deeply unsettled her. Emma was surprised at how quickly she had gotten used to the title and how natural it suddenly sounded, but she supposed it all made sense. After being away in another world from her son for so long, she had begun to realize just how much she missed him, how much he needed her, and how much she needed him, too. Now that she was back, Emma was determined to play a more active and larger role in her son's life.

Regina, of course, wasn't happy with it, and Henry had tried to pacify his other mother by telling her he just wanted to spend some time with his Emma after having been apart for so long. He had even promised that, after this first week, he would start to come back to live with her on some nights. It was an odd arrangement, one that both mothers only reluctantly agreed to for Henry's sake. To be honest, neither of them knew how long this arrangement would last before the old custody argument resurfaced and it wasn't going to be pretty.

For now, however, everything seemed pretty grand. The Charming family was reuniting and getting a chance to get to know one another, Emma and Henry were becoming closer, and everything seemed pretty peaceful in Storybrooke for once.

It was Sunday afternoon, a nice day to do just about anything, and Henry had suggested they go to the park, Snow adding enthusiastically that it was a great idea and that they should have a picnic. Although rather sick of trees and woods, Emma had agreed knowing how happy it would make Henry.

They were nearly ready to leave, Emma already having made her way back down the hall to grab a couple blankets when a knock on the door caused them all to pause.

"Who could that be?" Snow asked curiously, but before she could make her way to the door, Henry was already running toward it.

"Don't worry, I'll get it!" He assured her and Charming, and then called to whomever was on the other side of the door, "Who is it?" because he had always been taught to ask before opening the door. You never knew who might be on the other end.

"Is there an Emma Swan here? I need to speak to her," a rugged, deep voice called uncertainly from the other side.

Henry turned back to look at his grandparents, waiting for a nod of approval before he opened the door to reveal a somewhat nervous-looking dark haired, brown-eyed man. "You're not from here, are you?" he immediately asked, eyeing the man with a hint of suspicion, as he had certainly never seen him before.

"Uh, no, I'm not," the man said slowly, looking confused. He opened his mouth, most likely to draw Henry's attention back to the original question at hand, but the boy cut him off.

"That means you're new to Storybrooke, that you came here from the outside," Henry said, and the man at the door raised an eyebrow because he really didn't understand what the big deal about being from out of town was.

"Yeah, I'm new, but what's it matter? Now look, kid, I really need to—" Again, Henry stopped him before he could finish what he was going to say, and he stared at the kid in mild surprise. He sure had a lot of charisma to talk to a stranger so much older than him like this. His parents should really keep him more in line when talking to adults, but he noted that the most they were doing was standing behind him a few feet from the door looking just as confused and astonished as the boy was.

"It matters because we don't really have new people here in Storybrooke. Everyone knows each other and there are no outsiders unless you count my mom and August," Henry explained. "So I want to know how you got here and who you are."

The man's brow furrowed at the boy's explanation and he glanced up and over at the couple standing behind him for a moment before turning his attention back to the kid. "I drove here, simple as that, kid. And the name's Neal, Neal Cassidy."

"I'm Henry, and these are my grandparents," the boy said, gesturing to the couple behind him. _Oh, not his parents, then. _Neal tried not to look too dubious at how young these grandparents of Henry's were. They looked like they couldn't be much older than thirty!

"Mary-Margaret," Snow said, stepping forward and offering a hand to shake. Neal firmly shook her hand and then turned to Charming, who also stepped forward with his hand outstretched to introduce himself.

"I'm David. So, how do you know Emma, if you don't mind my asking?" Charming asked, and although the man was trying to be polite, Neal could sense the suspicion in his tone. But what connection did these two and Henry have with Emma? Did she live with them? Did they live with her? Were they just visiting?

"We're uh…we're old friends," Neal said, taking a moment to figure out what he supposed he should refer to himself as because old love was certainly out of the question.

"Oh?" Snow said, looking curious now. "She's never mentioned you," she added, looking a tad disappointed. Neal tried not to let his own disappointment show, too, although the fact that Emma had never even mentioned him said a great deal.

Neal shrugged. "Yeah…probably…probably not," he said dismissively. "So, I assume she's here, right?" He asked, wanting to peak around the three of them but not wanting to appear rude or impatient.

"Yeah, she's just getting something from her room," Snow said, gesturing with her thumb down the hall.

"Okay, no problem, I can wait," Neal said with a nod. After all, he had waited eleven years so what was another minute or two in comparison? "Can I ask how you guys know her?"

"They're Emma's parents and I'm her son," Henry explained, pointing to the couple behind him and then to himself.

"Her—her parents?" Neal asked dubiously, eyes widening. _Her son?!_ "She told me she didn't—" He was about to go on about how impossible it was when an all-too-familiar voice rang out from behind Charming, Snow, and Henry and the sound of boots clacking on the floor caused them all to pause. The three people crowding the door turned about to face her and Neal resisted the urge to rise up onto his toes and peak over their heads to get a glance of her as the nervousness in his gut fluttered up his throat. He was suddenly so excited yet so unbelievably nervous to face her after all this time. What if no matter how much he tried to explain, she didn't forgive him? What if she didn't love him anymore? What if she had moved on?

No, surely she had, the evidence being that boy at the door in front of him.

"What's going on? Is there some sort of party over here at the door that I didn't know about?" Emma asked.

"Mom, there's someone here to see you," Henry said, and he and his grandparents stepped aside for her to see who it was.

_He called her mom_, Neal thought for a moment with incredulity before they all parted and he finally caught a glimpse of her. "Emma…" he couldn't help but murmur with affection and disbelief. God, she still looked as beautiful as ever. A small smile found its way across his face as he took in her appearance: the long blonde locks that flowed past her shoulders instead of being pulled back in a high ponytail like they used to be; those blue eyes…he missed the glasses that used to frame her face and make her look so studious.

But that was all he got before he realized she was glaring at him, extending her arm out…and slamming the door in his face.

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**A/N: Wait, that was an evil cliffhanger, wasn't it? I'm sorry, guys! But I swear I'll update very soon seeing as I've already got the second chapter written and I'm working on the third! **

**But if you wanna read any of that other stuff, you're gonna have to review! Please and thank you!  
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	2. The Penny in the Air

**A/N: Okay...so...wow! I didn't expect so many reviews so quickly! I woke up this morning to 25 e-mails related to this story! Way to go, you guys. I'm so glad you've enjoyed the first chapter, and hopefully you'll like the second one, as well! I'm getting the feeling some of you might be surprised as to how this goes, but hopefully you'll still like this chapter just as much as the first!**

**But you'll have to let me know how you like it and if you think the characters and plot are all okay or not so I can make some changes accordingly.  
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**Anyways, enjoy and remember to review! Reviews make me happy and eager to write!**

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"So, who's ready for a picnic?" Emma asked, turning away from the door as if no one had even been there in the first place. Instead, she headed for the counter where all the picnic items, including the blankets she had brought out, now sat. But as eager as she was to move past the unexpected visit, her family wasn't letting go of the matter so easily, especially when they could hear poor Neal desperately calling her name and knocking on the door.

"Hold it right there, young lady," Snow ordered, grabbing a hold of her daughter's arm and pulling her back toward the three of them.

"Young lady?" Emma repeated. "Seriously?"

Snow gave a sheepish chuckle. "I've kind of always wanted to say that," she said with a shrug before she cleared her throat and grew serious again. "But that's not the point. The point is that we are _not _going to act as if nothing just happened."

"Okay, fine," Emma said dismissively, "Maybe you three aren't, but I am," she snapped back, trying to pull away and free herself.

"I don't think so," Snow said, and Charming gave a nod of agreement. "There's obviously something big going on here that we're all missing and you need to explain why you just shut the door in that man's face. Otherwise, you're not going anywhere and neither are we."

"He seemed perfectly nice to me," Henry said.

"He wasn't from here, though," Charming added, which was the odd fact that was on everyone's mind. If he wasn't from Storybrooke, how had he gotten here and why would he come here? Obviously it had something to do with Emma, but what exactly, no one but Emma herself knew.

"No, he's not from here and he's got no right to be here, either," Emma said sharply. "And he's _not _a nice man, he's a liar and a thief and you shouldn't trust a word that comes out of his mouth," she added, giving Henry a stern look. She didn't mean it to be just advice, she meant it to be an order.

"What?" Henry asked in disbelief, wondering why his mother would be so adamant about this. She'd never even used that kind of tone of voice with him before. Granted, she'd only very recently begun to really take up the motherly role, but still, from what Henry could understand, this was rather out of character for her. Whatever the connection between his mother and Neal was, it didn't seem to be anything good.

"Okay, that's it," her mother snapped. "If you think he's really that bad, then why don't you tell us why? What experience with this guy have you had that makes you so convinced he's not to be trusted?" Snow demanded, hands on her hips.

"I don't have to tell you anything," Emma muttered angrily, turning away from them all.

"Emma, please, we want to help and if you tell us why he's such a bad guy, we'll be more than willing to help you get rid of him," Charming spoke up, sounding more calm and quiet than his wife, which was odd because normally it was Charming who was eager to step into the battle, so to speak. Perhaps it was because this was an emotional, talk-driven kind of issue and he wasn't good at those or perhaps because he was still a little behind everything, trying to figure it all out.

"No, I can handle this on my own," she assured them. "I don't want you three, especially you, Henry, to get involved with this guy at all."

"But why?" Henry desperately wanted to know. "What did he do to you?"

The blonde gave an exasperated sigh and averted her son's gaze. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well you might just have to because I don't think he's leaving any time soon," Snow said, gesturing toward the door. Even if he just seemed to be standing on the other end quietly, listening in on their argument, everyone could tell he hadn't left yet.

"Great, let him stand there, but I'm not talking to him!" Emma answered, raising her voice so he could hear.

Apparently, her words had stirred Neal into action again. "Emma, please, you have to understand that I was just trying to do what was best for you and I didn't purposely turn you in. Em, I'd never hurt you. Not intentionally. Please, just let me explain!" Neal's muffled voice called from outside the apartment.

Three confused pairs of eyes turned to her expectantly.

"What does he mean by 'turn you in'?" Charming asked.

"Does this have something to do with that time you spent in Phoenix?" Snow asked, recalling the article in _The Mirror _that Sydney had published a while back. It had even had Emma's mug shot on the cover.

She heaved a sigh and after a moment of silence: "Yes, it does," she answered. "He's the whole reason I ended up there."

"What?!" Snow exclaimed in surprise, Charming and Henry sharing similar expressions.

"If you open the door I can explain everything to you!" Neal said.

"Not happening, Neal!" Emma shouted back, but Snow was making her way over to the door. "Mary Margaret, what are you doing?" the blonde demanded, stepping forward to try to stop her.

"I want to hear what he has to say, and I think you should, too." And with that, she opened the door before Emma could intervene.

Immediately, Neal was pouring out words in case Emma tried to shut the door on him again. "Em, I'm sorry for everything, but you need to know that when we planned that final heist with the watches, I had every intention of meeting up with you."

"Sure you did, Neal."

"I did! Honestly!" he said. "But as I was heading over to the meeting place we had designated earlier, someone caught up with me. I thought it was the Feds at first, so I ran, but he ended up cornering me and told me that he knew you; that he was your guardian angel or something," Neal went on to explain.

Emma raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Guardian angel? Okay, who was this guy?" she asked, arms folded over her chest.

"He said his name was August Booth and that he had something to tell me. He told me about a curse, that you had to be the one to break it, and that I was just holding you back. He made me realize that the life we were living—stealing things and practically living in that little bug of ours—it wasn't right for you. You deserved better and I was not only stopping you from saving this town and breaking that curse, but I was also stopping you from becoming everything you could be. I was holding you back," Neal said. "He gave me a choice and told me that if I really loved you and wanted to give you your best chance, I would let you go and that's what I did. I didn't want to Emma, I really didn't. The only reason I agreed was because he promised that he would continue to look after you, give me an occasional update, and let me know when you had broken the curse. He gave me the hope that I might see you again one day."

She really didn't know how to respond to that. Her arms had fallen to her sides and she was staring at him with an undecipherable look on her face as she tried to process everything he had just told her.

"Emma?" Snow asked softly, reaching out to put an arm on her daughter's shoulder which was only shoved away.

Henry and Charming looked from Neal to Emma in disbelief. So that was what had happened between these two. They had fallen in love and he had abandoned her.

"Why would you listen to some stranger? Why would you ever think that your leaving me and setting me up would ever _help _me?" Emma suddenly asked, voice rising as she continued. "You didn't know August, you didn't know if he was completely full of crap or not! Why did no one even ask me what I might've wanted?" she demanded loudly, beginning to grow visibly upset. "It's my life, it was my heart you both were breaking, shouldn't I have gotten a say in what happened?!"

"You're right, you should've," Neal said. "I shouldn't have ever listened to him and I regret that choice every day. I think about _you _every day," he told her, wishing there was some way to show her just how much he regretted his decision and how much he still loved her after all these years.

"Maybe we should leave them to discuss this alone," Charming murmured to Snow as the arguing couple continued to talk. She looked over at the pair, unveiled concern in her eyes, and slowly nodded. "Take Henry to the bedroom and turn on the TV or something. I'll stay here and make sure everything remains…civil," Snow instructed quietly, and Charming nodded.

"Come on, bud, we should let them have their privacy," Charming said, grabbing Henry's hand.

"But I want to know what's going on. This is important," the ten-year-old insisted, but Charming put a finger to his lips to signal that he should quiet down and led him silently away from the arguing couple.

"You've thought about me every day for eleven years?" Emma asked, her expression softening.

He nodded. "Of course I have. I love you, Emma. In eleven years, that's one thing that hasn't changed."

In a flicker, her expression hardened and the bitter spite toward him returned full force. "Then you shouldn't have left me," Emma said, turning away from him so he wouldn't see the tears that were beginning to fall.

"I know that, Em, I do!" Neal said. "I wish I never had. I should've told him that I would help you accomplish your destiny; I should've been there with you every step of the way, but I wasn't."

"No, instead you left me to eleven months for your crime in Phoenix," she shot back, rounding on him with absolute resentment in her eyes. "Instead, you let me think that every moment we spent together was a lie."

"I know," Neal said, hating himself all the more as he saw the pain in her eyes and heard it in her voice and knew that he had caused it. "That should've been me. But I tried to make it up to you. I gave August the keys to our car and the money from the watches to give to you when you got out. I made him promise to do it when I met up with him two months after it all happened."

"You sent money?" Emma asked.

"I know it wasn't nearly compensation enough, but it was something. I wanted to do all I could so that when you got out, you'd have something to start off with," Neal explained.

Emma shook her head. "I never got any money, I just got the keys to the car," she told him.

"What?" Neal said, looking confused. "But I gave it to August. I told him to give it to you and he promised he would—"

"Yeah, well August is a—"

"No good, lying bastard," Neal growled a moment later as the realization dawned on him. "He told me he wasn't good at resisting temptations and I went and gave him thousands of dollars," he said. "Oh God, I should never have done that. I should've—I should've tried to send it to you myself," he said, putting his face in his hands as he realized his terrible mistake.

"If I had known that you did that…if I had gotten that money, I never would've—Henry…" she murmured, looking over at Snow. "I could've kept Henry," she realized, and Snow grabbed Emma by the arms to try to support her and calm her down.

"You mean you gave that kid of yours up for adoption?" Neal exclaimed.

"Of course I did! I was only eighteen, I was doing time in prison, and I knew I wouldn't have anything but the keys to a car when I got out. I wanted to give him his best chance and I knew it wasn't with me," she said defensively. "Of course I gave him up for adaption," she repeated. "Given what you just told me about giving people their best chances, you of all people should understand that, shouldn't you?"

Neal made no acknowledgement of the jab she had made at him and instead zeroed in on something else she had said that had stuck out to him. "Wait, do you mean to say that you were pregnant while you were in jail?"

"Thanks to you, yeah," Emma said, not quite realizing she had basically just indirectly informed him that Henry was his.

Snow, too, gasped as she and Neal both simultaneously came to the same conclusion. "So you mean he's mine? He's my son? I have a son?"

"He's Henry's father?!" Snow gasped.

"That's my dad?" Henry cried from somewhere behind everyone, and all three heads turned to see the boy in question peering around the corner with Charming just behind him and looking extremely apologetic.

Mortified, Emma looked from Henry back to Neal, to Snow, to Charming, and finally back to Henry before squeezing her eyes shut. "Shit."

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**A/N: So there you have it, chapter 2! Probably not what you're expecting? And yet again I've been a jerk and left you with a mean cliffhanger. I swear the next chapter should be up in like two days, maybe? Anyways, if you like this chapter, please, please, please leave me a review so I know! And if you think the story just went downhill (not for the characters but I mean for the quality of the story) let me know that, too!**

**Thanks and best wishes!  
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	3. When the Penny Drops

**A/N: Oh my God, wow guys. I was NOT expecting such an incredible response from you all for the second chapter! You all blew me away with your lovely, supporting, and wonderful reviews, so thank you so, so, so much for that! I usually try to respond to just about everyone, although I might've missed a few of you. I swear I appreciate all of your guys' readership equally! But again, thank you so much everyone! You've been amazing!  
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**Hopefully you'll still like this chapter. It's got some humor in it, but I think it gets a little more serious here and I'm not sure whether I did a good job with Emma's character in this chapter, either. It's tricky because I don't know exactly how she would act in this kind of situation, so I took my best shot but feel free to let me know if you think I missed the mark. I appreciate good critiques, it helps me improve.  
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**And hopefully you guys will like the ending. I tried to make it less of a dramatic and unresolved cliffhanger type ending, so I hope you like that!  
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**Anyways, enough of my blabbering, enjoy the chapter!**

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"David!" Snow hissed. "What happened to giving them privacy?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, Snow. I turned my back for a second to look for the remote and he sort of slipped past me," Charming apologized.

"Not uh," Henry interrupted. "I told you I wanted to go back out and secretly listen in and you said okay because you wanted to hear the rest of the conversation just as much as I did."

Charming winced—_Damn, ratted out by a kid!_—and dared a glanced over at Snow to see the look of clear disapproval on her face. He shot her another severely apologetic look and she just shook her head, inwardly sighing at how bad the pair was at following directions and giving people privacy. But it couldn't be helped now.

"So he doesn't—didn't know about me, then," Neal said disappointedly, getting back to the main focus of the conversation. Henry was ten years of age and he had never known who his father was. Then again, he probably hadn't known who his real mother was, either, up until recently.

"No, he doesn't—er, didn't," Emma answered.

"Mom, you told me he was dead!" Henry interjected, and Emma's wide-eyed gaze immediately shot over to him as she wished the kid was better at keeping his mouth shut.

"You told him I was dead?" Neal repeated, looking absolutely deflated rather than angry. So she had told the boy a lie instead of telling him who his real father was. She was ashamed of him, then; she wanted to forget him….

Emma averted her gaze to the floor. "I thought it was better than telling him—telling you," she amended, deciding it was better and easier to aim her response toward Henry. He deserved an answer more than Neal did, anyway. She glanced back up from the floor and over at Henry, who was gazing up at her looking hurt and confused. She shook her head and started again. "I wanted you to think he was a good guy…because I wanted him to be a good guy. I didn't want to lie to you, Henry, but you were so eager to know who he was and you seemed so excited to think he was this amazing guy and I just didn't want to let you down, either. And as much as I thought Neal wasn't, I didn't want to really admit it…"

"But you lied to me," Henry murmured, his eyes beginning to tear up.

She could hardly bear to look at him now. "Henry, please…" Emma started to say, but although she kept opening her mouth and closing it as if she had more to say, nothing came out. She really was at a loss. How was she supposed to justify the lie? Well, she had justified it earlier when Henry had first asked about his father and she had justified it a moment ago and yet right now…now it all seemed so wrong. Knowing his father was knowing a bit about who he was and that was so important to a kid. She knew that because she had experienced the same thing after going through all those foster homes.

And yet she had gone and deprived Henry of that when she had been given the perfect chance to explain it to him but passed it up. All because of her feelings and her being too stubborn to admit that as much as she hated Neal, there was still a part of her that wanted to believe he loved her even if he had abandoned her; that wished he might return or that she'd somehow be proven wrong about him. There was a part of her that still cared for him as much as she hated to admit it, and because of that piece of her she just hadn't wanted to let Henry down like she had been let down.

But in doing so she had apparently done more harm than good. Of course, she had never been expecting Neal to show up in her life again, but she still shouldn't have done that to Henry.

She was no better than Regina.

"I'm so sorry, Henry, I shouldn't have…" Emma began, taking a step toward him only for him to step away, bolt past her and everyone else, and run out the door. "Henry, wait!" she cried, heading for the door, but Charming's hand on her arm stopped her.

"Let me get him," he said. Emma stared at him, debating whether to agree or not. But it's not like Henry would want to talk to her, anyway; he'd just want to run further away. In this situation, Charming would be best capable of calming her son down. The pair of them had bonded a lot since she and Snow had been gone and they seemed to have a deep connection now that hadn't been there before. If anyone could calm him down, help to reason with him, and bring him back it was Charming, not her.

She nodded. "Go ahead; just make sure he's alright, okay? And I know he's already heard me say it, but just let him know I'm sorry." Charming nodded, assuring her he'd deliver the message, and ran off after his grandson.

"I'm sorry," Neal said sincerely, seeing how upset Emma was by this sudden falling out.

Emma took a deep, shaky breath in order to calm herself down, but it wasn't doing any good. This was all starting to become too much. Instead of facing him, she turned away from Neal and put her face into her hands, rubbing her eyes as she felt the tears building up behind them.

Realizing that Emma seemed to be nearing her breaking point and about ready to fall apart, Snow quickly intervened. "Neal, I know you probably still have a lot you want to talk about, but maybe it's best if you leave for now," she heard her mother gently suggest. "How about you give me your phone number and when Emma's ready, she'll give you a call?"

Neal nodded. "Yeah, yeah, that's fine," he said, patting his jacket to look for a pen and paper to write his number down on but seeming to be at a loss.

"Here," Snow said, handing him a notepad and a red pen from the kitchen table.

Neal quickly scribbled down his number and handed the notepad and pen back over to Snow. "Thanks. Bye Em," he muttered awkwardly, giving a little wave that she didn't see before heading out the door.

Emma heard it quietly shut behind him before she felt Snow's light touch on her shoulder. Her parents had been doing a lot of that today, constantly trying to show her their support and let her know they were there. It was odd given that she wasn't used to this kind of thing. She was used to going through struggles like this by herself. Usually, she coped by sitting at home alone feeling sorry for herself for a while before deciding to drink away her problems and letting sleep and time take care of the rest.

"Emma, are you alright?" Snow asked softly, and Emma replied with a shake of her head. There was no use lying as her mother could obviously tell something was wrong. "It's okay, you can let it all out. No one's gonna see but me," she assured her daughter, pulling her slowly into her arms and rubbing her arm soothingly.

And then, to Snow's mild surprise, Emma turned into her mother's embrace and buried her head in her shoulder.

"I screwed up big time," she mumbled, her voice muffled in her mother's pale blue cardigan.

"No, no you didn't," Snow insisted, shaking her head and stroking her daughter's hair. "Henry might be upset now, but Charming's going to calm him down and help him understand. He won't be mad at you forever, Emma. He'll get over it; Henry's a smart kid and he doesn't hold grudges, especially against people he loves."

Emma raised her head and pulled away. "You don't know that," she countered. "He'll probably hate me now. I lied to him about something a parent should never lie to their kid about; I denied him the right to know who his family is—who _he _is, and that wasn't fair. I know what it's like and I should've known better, but instead I let my stupid feelings override that. I was selfish and I had no right. I'm no better than Regina," she told her mother as she paced back and forth across the room.

"No. No, don't you say that; it's not true," Snow said, grabbing her by the arm and bringing an end to her pacing. She then grabbed Emma by the shoulders and forced her to look at her as she went on. "Look at me, it's not true. You weren't being selfish, you just didn't want to let Henry down and think that his dad wasn't a good person. That's not selfish at all, Emma. You were just trying to spare him the pain and I understand that, I really do," she assured her.

Emma looked back at her uncertainly, like she was trying to get herself to understand and agree with that. "You do?"

"Of course I do. Sometimes parents do all sorts of ridiculous things to help their kids and to spare them the same pain that they've had to endure. You could call it a protective instinct, even," Snow explained. "It's not something to be ashamed of and don't worry, Henry's going to come around and he'll understand. He's a smart kid."

"It doesn't matter how smart he is, he's going to be upset that I didn't tell him the truth, especially considering how much he's been lied to in the past. And this was something huge, Mary Margaret. I had no right withholding that information from him," the blonde argued, shaking her head.

"Henry's more understanding that you think, Emma. He's really intuitive and he's good at understanding emotions and the way people think. Just wait and see," Snow assured her with a smile.

Emma sighed. "That still leaves the matter of Neal, though. He's going to want to see and get to know Henry and Henry will want to do the same. I'm not sure I want that."

"I know it might be hard, but I think you do owe it to him. It's only fair seeing as it's the same as what happened with Henry and you," Snow noted. "If you don't willingly allow him to, he'll do what he did to Regina and just sneak out and actively seek Neal out himself," she pointed out, and Emma smiled a bit at that.

"Yeah, the kid's sneaky like that, but I can't blame him for wanting to get to know him. I guess it's something the three of us all have in common," Emma muttered. "I see a lot of Neal in Henry, though. It's hard not to notice it sometimes," she added, and Snow's smile widened. "You know the first time I met Neal was in that yellow bug? I actually stole it and was driving away with it when out of nowhere, he popped up in the back seat and literally scared me half to death. I thought I was going to get in trouble because I thought he owned the car but it turned out I'd stolen a stolen car," Emma said with a laugh, and Snow chuckled, too, despite thinking that it was definitely not okay that her daughter had stolen a car like that.

"And?" she eagerly prompted, waiting to hear the rest.

"And shortly after meeting Henry—actually, it's happened several times after that, too—I thought I had gotten him off my hands and was driving back to Boston after dropping him off at Regina's when he popped up from the back seat in the same way," she told Snow, laughing even more, and Snow joined in.

"Like father, like son, then," she said, and Emma nodded, rolling her eyes.

"Aside from the stealing, Neal really wasn't that bad of a guy, actually," Emma confessed.

"Yeah? Come on," Snow said, pulling the blonde over to the couch and sitting down, patting the seat next to her as a gesture for Emma to join her. Emma gave her a questioning look. "Why don't you tell me more about him?"

Normally, Storybrooke's sheriff would decline any offer for her to open up, but for some reason she found herself complying with her mother's invitation, plopping down on the sofa and starting from the beginning with the stolen stolen bug and the string of heists.

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**A/N: So there you have it, folks! Chapter 3! I hope you liked it, and whether you did or didn't, please let me know via the review button (or is it just a box below the story now?)! Anyways, it's quick, it's simple, it's easy to use-so please take a moment to shoot me your reaction!**

**I hope you liked it!  
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	4. A Lesson In Love

**A/N: Again, I have to say that I'm so amazed at the response this fic is getting! I never expected it to get such an enthusiastic response, so thank you so, so much everyone! I'm glad you're liking it!**

**Although hopefully I'm not letting you down with this chapter. It is a bit longer which is lovely, but I'm not sure if Snow goes a bit too far or if Emma's a bit too acquiescent and blah. I'm just not sure about this one, so it's all the more important to know what you guys think of this!  
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**Also, be warned, there's a big cheese factor in this one. Or at least, I think there is. So just...look out, okay?  
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**Thanks and enjoy!**

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Emma was surprised to finally spare a moment to look at the time and see that it was way past noon already. It was around 3:30 and she had to have been talking to her mother about Neal and her past and a thousand other things for over three hours. She never even knew she could talk for that long! It had to have been the most talking she had ever done with any one person.

But again, to her surprise, she found she liked it. She enjoyed sitting here with Mary Margaret or Snow or whatever it was she was supposed to call her mother now and tell her everything. To be honest, she had never really opened herself up like this to anyone else and told them so many things about her past…well, maybe for Neal she had.

And speaking of Neal, she had told her mother everything she could think of about the man she had once been in a relationship with. She had told her about how he had covered for her when the cop had caught them in the stolen bug and how the pair of them had ended up being this sort of Bonnie and Clyde duo that went around from store to store thieving for a living.

"We would always come up with these elaborate roleplaying schemes. For example, there was this one time," Emma had told her mother with a laugh, "Where I pretended I was pregnant and he went to ask the sales clerk for help because we were pretending to be lost. Unfortunately, someone who walked in noticed something was up and so I distracted the sales clerk by pretending I was going into labor and we got away before anything else happened…Kind of ironic, though. Never thought I'd ever actually be pregnant," she had said.

"Fate does like to do that, doesn't it? Has a way of messing with you," Snow had replied with an amused grin.

"Karma's a bitch," Emma had grumbled, and Snow responded with a laugh, her grin widening. It had been obvious she'd been enjoying the conversation and getting to know about her daughter. It'd been the one thing she had wanted most after regaining her memory after the end of the curse.

Of course, she hadn't been crazy about the stealing, but she had cut Emma some slack knowing that she obviously knew better and thankfully didn't have to resort to such measures anymore. Most of all, she had just been glad to know that at some point, even if he'd slipped away from her, Emma had had someone who loved and cared for her. Although it was even more heartbreaking now that she knew what had happened between them. She could understand better now why Emma had been avoiding the subject for so long.

However, as she had explained to her daughter, love like that shouldn't be forgotten or denied. She couldn't just hide it away forever and pretend that it never existed even if it hurt to remember. Cora and Regina thought love was weakness, but as they had found out at Lake Nostos and as Emma herself had said, love is strength.

Emma hadn't been all that thrilled at her mother's use of her own words against her, but she knew that Snow was right.

"I can't believe we've been sitting here for over three hours just talking," Emma remarked, glancing at her watch again in disbelief.

Snow smiled. "Never thought you were this much of a talker, did you?"

"But I'm not. I guess it's just…me finally getting around to opening up to someone. You're the first person I've really talked to about…well anything, really. I mean, I did talk to Neal about a lot of things, but after he was gone I didn't have anyone. I've never spoken to anyone else about Neal between the time he left and the time he showed up at our door this morning."

"Well, I for one am really glad you decided to finally open up. It's about time you did if what you say is true. That means you've gone what, eleven years without ever having talked about it with anyone else? That's such a long time to keep so many secrets locked up for," Snow commented, patting Emma's knee. She was proud of her daughter, especially knowing how hard Emma found it to talk about herself and to open up to others. While Snow never found it too hard to express herself and share her feelings, Emma was quite the opposite. But now she was coming out of her shell, and Snow couldn't be more pleased that not only was she finally doing so, but that she was doing so with her. It was a sign of trust that she was glad to know she had earned at last.

Emma smiled back at her mother, feeling relieved to have unloaded all the burdensome memories she had been keeping hidden all these years. She found it felt surprisingly good, and she liked knowing she now had someone to confide in and someone who knew everything besides herself. It was a weight lifted off her shoulders. "You know what? I'm pretty glad about it, too," she found herself saying with mild surprise.

"That's good, Emma. That's really good," Snow said approvingly.

But her daughter's smile faded as she realized that while she had succeeded in opening up to her mother and had talked to her for a good three or more hours, Henry and Charming still hadn't returned. "Henry and David aren't back yet," she said with a frown. "Do you think Henry's still mad at me?" she asked with concern.

"I'm sure David has just been trying to help him get his mind off of things as well as help him understand. They've grown really close while we were gone and they probably just lost track of time like we did," Snow reasoned, patting Emma's knee again reassuringly. "Don't worry; they'll be back soon enough."

"Right," Emma said, trying to convince herself that Snow was right.

"But putting Henry aside for a moment, do you think you'll be giving Neal a call any time soon?" Snow asked, looking over at the coffee table in front of them where the notepad with Neal's number was still sitting.

"I don't know," Emma said after a moment of thought. "I'm not really sure what else to say to him."

"How about, 'I forgive you'," Snow suggested, and Emma stared at her dubiously. "I understand that he hurt you deeply, Emma, but he was just trying to act in your best interests. Your father and I did the same thing and so did you, right? We've all done it for the same reason: to give the people we love the best chance at a good, happy life. You can't blame Neal for that. Even if it may have seemed like a betrayal eleven years ago, you just learned today that that's not the case. Why would he come all the way here to Storybrooke to apologize if he didn't honestly mean it?"

Emma looked from her mother and then over at the mug of hot chocolate sitting on the coffee table. Damn, she hated when her mother was right!

"Besides, he still loves you and don't ask me how because I can just tell," Snow said before Emma could interject.

"Yeah, well…I'm done with him. I gave him a chance and he blew it," Emma said, folding her arms over her chest and giving the mug a hard glare as if it were Neal himself.

"I understand you're afraid of getting hurt, but that's the cost of love. Sometimes you're going to get hurt, but again, love is strength, not weakness. It may make you vulnerable, but every bit of love that you receive and every bit that doesn't kill you make you a better, stronger person," Snow insisted. "I know it's hard, but you should give him a second chance."

"Maybe I should, but that doesn't mean I have to or that I'm going to," Emma said, looking back over at Snow.

Snow grinned and shook her head, and Emma frowned, confused and just the slightest bit annoyed. It was like Snow knew something she didn't. "That's where you're wrong, Emma."

"Yeah? How's that?"

"Because I know you already want to give him a second chance. Because you still love him and you're trying so unbelievably hard to fight it, but Emma, love like that doesn't just go away. You keep trying to deny it, but the truth is that I think you've been waiting for this to happen for years. Why else did you become a bounty hunter? It wasn't just to find David and I, was it? It was to try to find him, too. And why else would you lie to Henry and make his father seem like some hero when you could have just as easily told him he was a thief or a liar? You said so yourself earlier today that deep down, you wanted to think Neal was a good guy."

"No, you're wrong," Emma said, shaking her head and getting up from the couch. "I definitely don't have feelings for Neal. Those feelings died a long time ago."

"I know love when I see it, Emma," Snow countered, much to her daughter's annoyance.

"Maybe you could back in the Enchanted Woods or Fairytale Land or whatever it's called, but here—here's different. Love isn't some automatic, everlasting thing. It's a lot harder to find and a lot more complex that it was back where you came from—"

"Where _we _came from," Snow corrected. "You're from that world, too, even if you weren't raised there."

"Ugh. It doesn't matter. I've lived here in this world for 28 years and if there's one thing I know it's that love isn't that easy to recognize and it's sure as Hell not that easy to find."

"You think it's not over in our world?" Snow asked, getting up from her spot on the couch, too. "You've read the Once Upon a Time book; David and I may have fallen in love fast, but we spent so much time trying to find and hold onto each other. So much of our relationship, in fact, has been all about trying to find each other again and stay together.

"Don't forget Aurora and how she lost Philip to that wraith. They might've found love but it was ripped away from them because the man she loved was marked for death and had his soul taken.

"And I know you've heard about Regina and Daniel from David and Henry; she lost the man she loved, part of that being my fault, and there's no way she can bring him back now. She gave it one last go and you know how that ended.

"There are so many other people here who are examples of love gone rotten, love forgotten, love lost…It's not a perfect world over there, either. It doesn't matter how many other variables change from this world to ours—the cars, the weapons, the forests, the magic, the creatures—one thing that absolutely stays the same is human nature and that definitely includes love. Whether it's in this world or the Enchanted Forest, even if you find love it's just as hard to keep once you've got it and you shouldn't think for a second that I don't know what that feels like, Emma," Snow finally finished with a huff, tears in her eyes.

Emma stared at her, completely speechless. "I-I'm sorry, I never meant it like that. I didn't mean to say you were—"

"Yes you did," Snow replied quietly. "But it's okay. I understand that you haven't had a lot of love in your life and you feel as if you've only ever been let down whenever you did have it and because of that, you're afraid of it. You're only just learning to let love in and you've been doing so well—with Henry, with your father and I—I think you need to give Neal a chance, too, just like you did with us. Maybe it'll hurt in the end and maybe it won't, but love is all about risks, and sometimes, it's well worth taking them."

Emma heaved a sigh. "How are you so good at reading people?" she wondered aloud.

Snow shrugged. "I guess I've just had a lot of practice. When you're Snow White and you're wanted dead by an evil queen, you have to figure out how to read people in order to know who to trust and who not to. Otherwise, you're never going to survive."

"Speaking of that, I gotta say, the Disney version and the fairytales I grew up hearing really made you sound like a prissy little thing not some…tough, bow-and-arrow wielding badass," Emma said with a laugh, and Snow burst into a laughter, too.

"Glad I could set the record straight," she said. "So, you'll give Neal a chance, then?"

A part of her was screaming at her not to leave herself vulnerable like that again, but another part deeper within seemed thrilled at the idea of giving Neal another chance and she knew as soon as she felt it that she had to. As Snow had said, she couldn't ignore it anymore and somewhere within her, she still loved him as much as she also hated to admit it.

"Yeah, I'll give him a chance," Emma breathed, feeling shaky just saying the words, but the way her mother was beaming at her made her smile a little, too. Even if the thought of trying to work things out with Neal unnerved her beyond belief, she was doing the right thing and her mother's look of approval gave her the confidence to do it.

The door opened then and to both their surprise, Henry came running in and straight to Emma. "I forgive you," he said before wrapping his arms around her. "I still wish you hadn't lied to me, but I think I understand now why you did what you did and I forgive you for it."

It was more than Emma could've hoped for, and she found herself pulling him in and trying not to cry because she really had thought that he'd be mad at her for much longer; that he might possibly even hate her.

"I know, Henry. I never should've lied and I'm sorry. I promise I won't lie to you again, okay? I'll tell you whatever you want to know. I'm just so relieved that you don't hate me."

"Why would I hate you?" Henry asked, pulling away to look up at her, puzzled. "You're my mom; I could never hate you, not really."

"I love you, kid," Emma said, beaming down at him and ruffling his hair affectionately.

"I love you, too, mom," he answered, smiling up at her.

"By the way, no offense, kid, but you smell…" Emma wrinkled her nose and stepped back.

"Like a stable?" Henry guessed with a hint of amusement on his face.

"Like the wrong end of a horse, yeah," Emma answered, and they both burst into laughter, Snow and Charming, who had been standing at the door, joining in not a moment later.

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**A/N: Okay so there you have it! Chapter 4 is done! I hope it's not too terrible and that the characters are still in character. If not, please let me know so I can improve next chapter and not repeat the same mistake! **

**I also hope it wasn't too cheesy for you, either. At least the ending wasn't a cliffhanger! I've been laying off of those for a couple chapters to give you guys a break, but as for how long that'll last...sorry, even I don't know.  
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**And now you know where Henry and Charming went off to! The stables! Henry doesn't have that castle place anymore, so I think his number one place to go when he's feeling sad or just needs some time alone now is the stables.  
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**Anyways, I hope you liked the update and if you did, please let me know in a review! If you didn't, let me know that, too! ****Oh, and next chapter, Neal will return and maybe you'll get to see August, as well, although I'm kinda still trying to work out what's going on with him.**  


**Thanks everyone!  
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	5. Memory Lane

**A/N: And now for the longest chapter yet! I hope you like it because I, for one, am not sure how I feel about it. I feel like the plot's alright but the writing is really meh, so let me know what you guys think!**

**Unfortunately, there's not really any August in here, but next chapter he'll be in there for sure! As compensation, I've included a little scene in here that I hope you guys like. So again, let me know what you think of it!  
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**And also thanks to everyone who has submitted reviews! You guys really make writing this worthwhile!**

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Although he told Emma he had forgiven her as soon as he came home, Henry spent a great deal of time either sitting in his room reading or talking to David about the progress he thought he made today at the stables. To her slight concern, he didn't say that much to her after he got home. But he did a lot of staring and kept glancing over at her as if he was expecting her to say something.

Henry's odd behavior continued all the way throughout dinner, catching even Mary Margaret's attention and garnering a shared look of confusion between mother and daughter. It wasn't until afterward dinner that Charming pulled Emma aside and told her what the root of Henry's suspicious looks was.

"He's waiting for you to tell him about his father," Charming explained.

"Not to be rude or anything, since I know you two have come to know each other a lot better since Mary Margaret and I have been gone, but how would you know? I thought emotions weren't your thing," Emma said. _Just like they're not my thing, either._

"Because I…may have…sort of promised him that you would tell him everything when we got home," her father said with a wince, expecting her to be upset with him for promising Henry something like that without any certainty that the promise would be kept. "It was part of how I convinced him to calm down, though," he justified, "because I knew that it was important to him to know who his dad was and it was part of the reason he was so upset with you earlier. It wasn't really because you lied to him but because you refused to tell him the truth about who his dad was and it was something he's been dying to know after meeting you," Charming further went on to explain to her. "And I figured you might be doing so, anyway, so I thought it would be alright."

Emma frowned at him. "I really wish you hadn't promised him that, but…" she sighed. "I know I should've told him the truth from the start, but I was just too afraid. It hurt too much and I didn't want to bring those feelings to the surface again and I didn't want to let Henry down, either. So at the same time, I'm kind of glad you did promise Henry that because you have a point; Henry deserves to know and I shouldn't hide the truth from him anymore."

Charming raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised at her response. "Really?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Thanks, David. I'll go talk to him right away," she assured him, and headed off to go pull the kid aside and have a chat with him so she could tell him about Neal. She owed this story to Henry and it was long overdue.

Dinner hadn't ended too long ago; in fact, Snow was still cleaning up the dishes and clearing the table, only today it seemed she had a helper.

It wasn't the first time Henry had volunteered to help clear the table, but there was something about his desire to help tonight that was different than usual. Tonight, he seemed like he was deliberately trying to stick around and wait for something to happen. Just as it had all evening, his gaze skipping back over to Emma as she came back down the hall from the bedroom where she had been talking with her father. He was really trying to be patient, wasn't he? Although he wasn't really trying to hide his impatience, either.

It looked to Emma like Henry was bursting at the seams to ask her the question that now, thanks to Charming, she knew was on his mind; but he probably wouldn't be able to hold his patience in for much longer. Bless him for even lasting this long!

"Hey, Henry," Emma called, and he immediately paused mid-reach as he went to grab the salt and pepper from the table.

"Yeah?" he asked, looking up at her eagerly.

"Come here," Emma said, nodding her head down the hall. "I've got a story to share with you that I think you'll wanna hear."

Henry gave Snow the briefest of glances as if to say he was sorry, but this was much more important. Snow simply smiled over at Emma with an unmistakable prideful gleam in her eyes. Her daughter was finally opening up and even in one day she had overcome so many hurdles she would have never before thought of even attempting to jump.

Snow watched the mother and son pair retreat to Emma's room before turning to Charming. "I couldn't be more proud of her," she told him.

"I feel the same way. Although, if she's telling Henry about Neal, I don't want to be stuck out of the loop."

Snow chuckled. "Well, it's Emma's story to tell, but I think it'd be alright if I relayed it to you," she figured. He had a right to know, after all, and so Snow led him to the couch where she and Emma had been sitting earlier and began to tell him everything she had picked up about Neal.

Meanwhile, Emma sat Henry down on the bed and took a deep breath, ready to finally tell Henry everything she could about his father. _He deserves this_, she reminded herself, but she was starting to feel a little nervous. She would've thought it'd be easier since she had already told Snow, but for some reason the idea of telling Henry about Neal made her feel a little queasy.

"You're going to tell me about my dad now, right?" Henry asked, practically bursting with anticipation, and Emma nodded.

"Yeah, I'm gonna tell you everything I can about him," she promised, taking his hands in hers and squeezing them. He gave her what appeared to be a reassuring smile and squeezed her hands back in return, almost as if he could sense her discomfort and was trying to give her strength to go through with this. Emma found herself smiling back before launching into her story.

"I was only seventeen and he was twenty-three when I met him," she began. "I was in Portland, Oregon and you know that yellow bug I drive?"

Henry nodded.

"I found it abandoned in an alleyway. I decided to steal it and was driving down the road, thinking I had gotten away with a perfectly good car without getting into any trouble, when he suddenly popped up out of the backseat. Just like a certain someone else after I tried to take him back to Regina's," Emma said, giving Henry a knowing look. Instead of looking guilty, Henry looked pleased to know that he had something in common with his dad even if it was just his propensity to sneak into the backseat of cars. "Of all the traits you could've inherited, it had to be that one," she sighed, rolling her eyes while Henry suppressed a giggle.

"Anyways, he popped up out of nowhere from the backseat and scared the living daylights out of me, but told me to keep driving. Only I was so distracted by his sudden appearance that I ended up running a stop sign and a cop stopped us. I didn't know what I was going to do, but Neal jumped up into the passenger seat at the last minute and covered for me, saying we were a couple and he was teaching me how to drive."

"He covered for you even though he didn't know you?" Henry asked, surprised.

"Well, it turned out it wasn't his car, anyway. He would've gotten in trouble, too. Turned out I had stolen a stolen car," Emma said with a laugh. "When we realized we were both in the same situation—living with little more than the clothes on our backs and stealing to get by—we decided to team up and help each other out, getting to know one another over time. We lived out of the bug most days, although there were a couple times we snuck into a motel room that someone had left unlocked or unattended, and we worked together to get the things we needed to survive like food and clothes…" _Okay, and maybe a few things we _wanted _but didn't actually need. Like that key chain he stole for me…_

"You mean you guys teamed up to steal things," Henry said, a slight hint of disapproval in his voice.

"Yeah, it was stealing," she admitted. "It's not a time in my life that I'm entirely proud of, but it was a happy one," Emma added, and that got Henry smiling again in spite of himself. "We were kind of this Bonnie and Clyde type duo where one of us would distract the shopkeeper while the other went around and discretely took what we needed. We never stole much and we never took anything that cost a lot," she assured Henry. "And it worked pretty darn well because normally, by the time the shopkeeper figured it out, he was too late and we were either gone or on our way out. Although one time there was a pretty angry shopkeeper who chased us two or three blocks before we managed to lose him."

"And you two ended up falling in love somewhere along the way," Henry concluded. Emma nodded. "How soon after you met?" he asked, and Emma had to take a moment to think about it.

"Not long. Probably…well, for me it was within a week or two. Maybe it wasn't exactly love at first…" Emma admitted with a shrug. "I was only seventeen, how would I have known exactly what it was given how little of it I'd known growing up?" she reasoned. "But that's what it felt like. Neal was the first person I had ever met who seemed to care about me and that's probably what drew me to him most. I liked knowing there was someone in my life that was looking out for me; who cared about what happened to me and wanted to help me. And who knows how soon after meeting me he felt the same way."

"When did you guys first kiss?" Henry asked. "Did you ever tell him you loved him? Did he ever tell you?"

"Whoa, slow down with the questions, kid," Emma said, holding a hand up to signal for him to stop. "One question at a time, okay?"

"Okay, then. When did you first kiss?"

"It was after that shopkeeper chased us down the street, actually. We were completely out of breath and leaning against a wall in some alleyway as we waited for him to pass by and go away. He was one persistent guy, let me tell you," she chuckled, recalling a balding, fifty-something year old man with quite the lungs.

_"Come out and face me like the scoundrels you are!" an angry voice called from behind as a seventeen-year-old Emma and twenty-three year old Neal Cassidy turned into the narrow alleyway and finally slowed to a stop. They watched with fear and amusement as the balding shopkeeper ran past their hiding spot a few moments later, fuming about those 'damn kids' and grumbling to himself, 'no one steals from me and gets away with it!' _

"_I told you we should've picked a different shop to steal from!" Emma hissed as she gasped for air. _

"_It was just a loaf of bread and a couple of oranges! How was I supposed to know he was going to run two blocks for it!" Neal said with a breathy laugh as he leaned against the wall and waited for the pain in his side to alleviate. Beside him, Emma did the same._

"_Bastard sure can run," Emma commented, and that got the both of them laughing harder given the appearance of the man who had ran after them._

"_I know! Was that guy in track when he was in high school?"_

"_No idea, but we'd better be more careful next time because I am _not _doing this again."_

_Neal nodded. "Me neither. I don't want a repeat of this; I wasn't built for running."_

"_No, I don't think so," Emma teased, patting his stomach._

"_Hey!" He cried indignantly, pulling her hand away and pouting at her like she had offended him._

_ Emma rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Not that look again."_

_ Neal chuckled. "It was a little bit fun though, don't you think? The thrill of a chase; knowing you might get caught but just managing to get away?"_

_ She looked hesitant to admit it at first, folding her arms and shaking her head in what appeared to be disapproval. But he could see the grin growing on her face and his own smile widened as he saw it. "Yeah, it was just a little bit fun," she reluctantly admitted. "But only because I'm doing it with you," she added, and Neal's amused grin turned into one of surprise and glee._

_ "Do you mean to say that you like spending time with me?"_

_ "I can't think of anyone I'd rather spend time with," she said, silently admiring how his whole face lit up when he spoke. She couldn't help but think how adorable those brown eyes were when they were gleaming with so much happiness. Emma never really got tired of looking into them._

_ "I was hoping you'd say that," Neal said before wrapping an arm around her and drawing her in. For a moment she thought he just meant to draw her in for a hug, but then he continued to close the distance between them until their lips were touching. Emma leaned in immediately and eagerly returned the kiss, heart pounding with excitement. After harboring these feelings for him for so long, she was finally getting a chance to express them. This was the moment she had been waiting ages for._

_ She'd even dreamed about it a couple times, but those dreams didn't even compare with this. The feel of his lips on hers was amazing enough, but the closeness of their bodies, the way his arm snaked around her waist and pulled her in, the way it felt to drape her arms over his shoulders as they held each other close…the dreams definitely hadn't been anywhere near as wonderful as this._

_ In fact, she was pretty sure that if she wasn't beginning to run out of air, she could stay here with their arms wrapped around each other and his lips on hers for forever. But as long as she just got to be with him—as long as he never left—she was okay with it ending because at least now she knew that this was only the first time and not the last._

_ Breathless, they finally pulled away, Emma's eyes meeting his as soon as she opened them. And if she didn't think that gleam in those beautiful brown eyes of his could get any brighter…well, they did, and it made her smile like a hopelessly love-struck idiot. But at least she wasn't alone in that respect. Neal had an equally dopey, ecstatic grin on his face that had her trying and failing to suppress a giggle._

_ "You have no idea how long I've waited for you to do that," she said at last, and he chuckled and shook his head._

_ "You have no idea how long I've been wanting to," he replied, her giggling only growing louder. "Well now that we've finally done that, I suppose we'd better get going," he suggested, and then offered his hand for her to take._

_ "Lead the way," she said as she took his hand and squeezed it, feeling giddy. And the pair of them ran off the way they had come, ready to return back to their little yellow bug that they had left waiting just a street away from the angry old shopkeeper's store._

"Well, there you have it," Emma finally finished, proud of herself for having made it through the whole story without any problems. But then Henry pointed out something she had apparently failed to notice.

"You're crying," he said, his gaze drifting to the tear that was rolling down her cheek.

"What? No I'm—don't be silly," she told him dismissively even as reached up and wiped away the mutinous stray tear from her face.

"It's okay to show your emotions, mom," Henry said, and Emma looked down at him, eyebrows creased in disbelief. "It's better to have loved and lost than to have never have loved at all, right?"

"Oh no, you're not getting all philosophical on me now. You're only ten! You know, you and Mary Margaret make quite the team," she remarked, making him grin and his eyes gleam in a familiar way that she usually associated with _him _but now she was beginning to see a whole lot of in Henry. Emma ignored the pang in her chest that followed the realization.

"Emma!" Snow's voice called from down the hall, and the sheriff stood and went to the door in time to meet her mother, who was holding a buzzing cell phone out for her to take.

She quickly grabbed the phone from her mother and answered it. "Hello? Whoa, slow down there, Granny, what seems to be the problem? Wait, did you say a fight? Between August and who else? Oh, well in that case, tell Neal to aim for the—" Emma began, but at the highly disapproving glare her mother shot her, she quickly corrected herself. "I'll be right there," she assured Granny, who was on the other end of the phone before hanging up and reaching for her coat on the dresser.

"What's going on?" Henry asked.

"It seems August and Neal have gotten into a bit of a disagreement at Granny's. It sounds to me like August thought it'd be a good idea to pay Neal a visit since he must've heard he was in town and the pair got into an argument that got a little too hands on. Granny kicked them out into the street, but no one's been able to break them up yet," Emma explained hurriedly, pulling on her jacket and heading out to the front door of the apartment. "David!" she called, thinking it'd be best to bring her new deputy with her. She'd need all the manpower she could get.

Charming met her at the door a moment later, and without further delay they headed out the door.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you liked this chapter, especially the little flashback scene I came up with! And I hope everything seemed in character for Emma and everyone else. I'm pretty hard on myself when it comes to writing and I always feel like I didn't quite do it right, so feel free to let me know your thoughts, good or bad! **

**Stay tuned for next chapter, which should be fun! I re-watched some episodes from season 1 to get a better understanding of August before I wrote his character in, and I think he'll be fun to write!  
**

**'Til next update and best wishes!  
**


	6. Saints and Sinners

**A/N: First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their continuous support for this fanfic and for the continued amazing response to it! Like I think I say every chapter, I'm glad you're all enjoying it so much and still reading it. It means a lot to me.**

**Secondly, I just wanna point out in case you haven't noticed that I've now gone and given the chapters titles. And I'm sorry if some of them are just stupid or don't make sense; I'm not good with titles. Ten points to Gryffindor if anyone can guess where chapters 2 and 3's titles came from!  
**

** Now thirdly, I'd like to say thanks specifically to the guest reviewer **meresger **because they point out a couple little details that I messed up on like the 11 months in Phoenix and a couple others. I wish I was able to respond directly to your messages! I really appreciate your feedback, though! **

** One thing I'd like to point out, though, is that I'm pretty sure Neal was 23 when he and Emma met because on the Wanted poster for Neal it said his birthday was March 23, 1977. That would have made him 23 or 24 at the time he met Emma in Oregon.**

** Sorry for the long author's note, but now for the new chapter! I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and just a warning: there is a fair bit of language in this chapter.**

* * *

Neal hadn't brought much with him to Storybrooke: a suitcase with about a week's worth of clothes, some toiletries, his cell phone charger, his iPod (because even if he was here for Emma, music was a must have), and a dream catcher.

Of course, the dream catcher he didn't need to bring, but it had been hanging up on the walls of wherever he had been sleeping whether it was the car before he had handed it off to Emma, a hotel room, or his apartment. It had become a personal tradition of his to have it somewhere visible nearby for every night for eleven years and now he couldn't bear to leave it behind.

Besides, if ever Emma forgave him and decided to stop by, he wanted her to know that what he had said earlier was true. Not once in a day in his life had he ever not stopped to think about her. Not once for eleven straight years.

Given how today's reunion had gone, Neal figured she wouldn't be coming to see him any time soon. She had been angry, upset, heartbroken…there was nothing in her eyes, in her voice, or in her words that said she still loved him. Perhaps she had once before, but now? Neal highly doubted it and it was all his fault.

No. No, wait. No, this _wasn't_ his fault! This was all August's fault! He had tricked Neal into thinking that he was doing what was best for Emma, that she'd be given the car _and _the money and that even if she did have to do his time in Phoenix, when she got out she'd be able to take care of herself. Had he known that August hadn't given her the money or that she was pregnant and he was the father, he never would've left her. There wouldn't have been a convincing speech or word or syllable that could've ever have convinced him to leave Emma in that case.

God, he could have stayed with her and they could've gone to Storybrooke, Maine anyway. They could've traveled across the country together and raised a son together and been happy and in love for the past eleven years. Instead, he had turned her in as August had instructed and let her spend eleven months in Phoenix while he roamed free in Vancouver.

Speaking of Vancouver, he should've realized when he met August there that the man would be sorely tempted to take the watch money instead of giving it to Emma. He had even alluded to the fact that he wasn't good at avoiding temptation—how could Neal have been so stupid and blind? He should've found a way to give it to Emma himself. Then maybe she could've kept her son instead of giving him away for adoption.

God, if he ever saw August, he swore he would—

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his hotel room door. A flutter of hope sprung forth in his heart, but Neal knew it couldn't be who he was hoping for. If anything, it was the hotel keeper, Granny, or her daughter, whom she had called Red, stopping by once again to notify him of some thing or another. Earlier, Red had dropped in to ask him who he was and whether he was new to Storybrooke and before that, Granny had stopped in to tell him that if he needed anything, he could call or come downstairs and ask. She'd also mentioned the hours her diner was open, too, figuring he'd be hungry sometime soon.

But as it turned out, it wasn't Granny or Red or Emma. In fact, it was the very man he had been hoping to see if only to give him a piece of his mind. Neal hadn't seen August ever since their meeting in Vancouver and now that he had talked to Emma and found out just how badly August had screwed up their lives, he wasn't going to hold back.

Upon opening the door, August greeted him with a smile. "Hey, Neal! Glad you finally made it—"

"You lying, greedy bastard," Neal growled, and then punched the man right in the face, causing him to stumble backwards and into the wall across from the door.

August put a hand to his face, looking dismayed when he drew blood. "Now that's a little uncalled for."

"Uncalled for? Uncalled for! What was uncalled for was when you took the money intended for Emma and went around doing who knows what with it!" Neal exclaimed angrily, voice raised. "What was uncalled for was that you said she didn't need the money but really you knew she'd need more than just a set of keys when she got out of prison and yet you kept that money for yourself! Did you know at the time you stole that money that she was pregnant? Did you know she gave up her son—o_ur _son—for adoption because she felt she had no other choice because you did that to her? Did you even know she had a son, because I sure as hell didn't!"

August held up his hands and leaned back against the wall as Neal advanced on him. "Oh, so I see you talked to Emma, then."

"Is that really all you have to say? I want answers, August. I want them _now_!"

"Alright, alright, I understand why you're upset, but you need to calm down, Neal," August said, and Neal scowled at him. Calm down? Really? How could he possibly expect him to calm down?! "I actually didn't know she was pregnant with Henry at the time, but don't you think it would've been suspicious if she had gotten 20,000 dollars from someone while in prison?" August said, eyebrow raised. "Even if Emma had been given the money, she probably wouldn't have kept Henry. She wasn't ready to be a mom, she was only eighteen and she was in prison!"

"That's not what she said earlier," Neal countered. "She said she'd have kept him. You should've seen the look on her face when she realized she could've kept Henry and raised him on her own instead of giving him away to someone else!" He shouted, stepping toward him, grabbing him by the sides of his leather jacket, and shoving him roughly into the wall.

In more of a defensive than offensive act, August butted Neal in the head and pulled himself from his grip before answering, "She says that now, Neal, but this is ten years after she had Henry. A lot has changed."

Neal clutched his head as the world spun for a moment, but as soon as it cleared he was tackling August to the ground and pinning him down by the collar of his shirt. "She's the one who's had to live with that decision, not you and not me, either. You hardly even know her, you've probably been too busy blowing that money instead of looking out for her, haven't you?!" Neal accused.

There was a flash of guilt that sparked in August's eyes as he looked away, and that was all Neal needed for confirmation before he raised his fist again to strike. August raised his own hand to intercept it and the pair struggled for power, unaware of the heavy footsteps trudging up the stairs.

"What in the devil's name is going on up here?" Granny's sharp, scolding voice commanded, and Neal and August both turned their heads to look at her, wide-eyed, and Neal with his fist raised in the air and ready to strike. Although looking up at the old lady with her hands on her hips and her cheeks a flaring red, Neal's own anger was partially forgotten as he realized just how fierce and positively frightening Granny looked despite her age. "If this is a fight, you two had better either break it up _now_ or move it outside!"

Neal and August shared a glance and, silently seeming to have actually come to an agreement about something, nodded. Neal climbed off of once-wooden man and in an odd show of civility, offered August a hand to help him up. The two men glared at each other as they pushed past one another and past Granny and headed downstairs and out of the inn.

Meanwhile, Granny headed to the phone to make a call to someone who she was sure would be interested to hear about this.

* * *

When Emma and Charming arrived outside of Granny's Inn, the two men were literally rolling around the pavement fighting for control around a small crowd that had formed in front of the quaint little inn. The town probably hadn't seen quite this much action since they had been on the hunt for Red. And maybe it was because they were fairytale characters, but they did seem to enjoy their action and drama.

"Anything else you wanna confess, August? How about what exactly it was that you did with the money, or maybe where you've been these past eleven years?"

"No, not particularly!" August heaved between grunts and shallow breaths as he managed to kick Neal away from him and get the upper hand in their brawl once again. "Not to you, anyway."

"To Emma, then?" Neal wondered aloud. He hadn't even noticed that the sheriff herself was already present at the scene, listening to their exchange with an odd mix of disbelief, anger, and uncertainty. At Neal's question, she froze up and watched anxiously, wondering what else August might have to tell her that she probably wouldn't like, if he had anything to say.

"It's none of your business," August shot back. "Hey, at least I kept part of the bargain and sent you a sign that the curse was broken just like I said I would!"

Emma wasn't sure if she wanted to waltz over there, grab August by the collar, and give him a well-deserved punch in the face or break them apart and slap them both in the face or what. She really had no clue what to do, but only knew that she was feeling a lot of things and she wasn't sure what some of those feelings even were.

It really was a good thing she had brought David along, as he immediately went into action, holding up his gun and ordering them to break up the fight.

The two dark-haired men froze before clamoring off of each other and facing the sheriff and her deputy, both looking shocked to find that there was a crowd watching and Emma was present. As he stood, August doubled over and clutched his stomach, still feeling the effects of the blow Neal had delivered earlier on when they had first stepped outside. Neal was pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stem its bleeding. The both of them were a mess of dirty, scruffy clothes and bloodied faces.

"You two are absolutely ridiculous," Emma seethed. "I don't care how deserving anyone was of anything, you two shouldn't have stooped down to this," she scolded. "David, you cuff Mr. Cassidy and I'll take care of Pinocchio over here," she instructed, pulling a pair of handcuffs from her belt and striding over to where August stood.

"Alright, everybody, fun's over. Go home," Emma called out to the rest of the townsfolk who remained gathered around Granny's. Leroy, along with others, grumbled as he turned his back and walked away from the scene.

Emma none-too-gently shoved August into the back of the police cruiser, pushing down on his head as he ducked in. She shot him a spiteful glare as she shut the door on him and got into the driver's seat while Charming pushed Neal into the other side and then got into the passenger's seat.

"Emma, I know what it looked like back there, but I was only fighting back out of self-defense," August called from the back seat once they were on their way.

"Self-defense?" Neal scoffed. "That's bullshi—"

"Both of you shut your mouths. I don't wanna hear another word out of either of you or else I'll beat both you asses, got it?" Emma snapped back at them, and both of them had the sense to shut their mouths and nod.

When they arrived at the station, Emma was dismayed to remember that there were only two holding cells for her to put her two least favorite men in the world.

Neal would've made a comment on how unbelievably small the building seemed to be, but recalling Emma's threat, he remained silent. However, even if she hadn't made the threat, he was distracted from his thoughts completely when, after her and Charming escorting the pair into the sheriff's station, she turned around to face August and to everyone's surprise gave him a whopping punch in the gut.

The man doubled over, gasping and wheezing for air before dropping to his knees and suddenly wishing that he were once again made of wood.

"That's for lying to me and screwing up my life," Emma snarled.

"Emma!" Charming exclaimed in shock, eyes moving from August, who was still holding his stomach and only just gaining his footing again, to Emma. While he did agree the guy did deserve to be hit, to be fair he seemed to have already gotten enough of a beating from Neal. And it wasn't to say that Charming didn't want to throw a punch at the man himself, but he was really reining his emotions in for Emma's sake (because if he didn't hold back, Emma wouldn't either) and for the sake of professionalism. How would it look if the sheriff's deputy lost control and decided to enact his own justice on another man no matter what wrong he had committed, let alone the sheriff herself?

Meanwhile, even if he wanted to try, Neal couldn't stop the smirk that spread across his face. "He deserved that one," he muttered more to himself, but Emma had heard him and immediately turned to see the grin on his face. The disapproving scowl that she shot back at him had him instantly sober up.

"Emma," Charming called in warning, but she didn't listen. Oh, Neal was in trouble now, wasn't he? Something told him he wasn't getting away so easily.

And sure enough, Emma marched up to him and slapped him across the face hard enough to make him dazed. Or maybe it was an after effect of the head butt from earlier….?

Instead of reprimanding her, Charming held his tongue, almost looking as taken-aback and afraid as Neal suddenly was. Damn, hell really hath no fury like a woman scorned!

"I expected more from you, Neal. I might want to beat him to pulp as much as you do—_did_—but couldn't you have at least had the decency not to attract a whole damn crowd?!" She angrily exclaimed, voice rising. "Maybe then I wouldn't have had to arrest you for creating a public disturbance and for getting violent with someone else in town! Jesus, Neal, I thought you had more sense than that!"

"Suppose it wouldn't help much even if I said sorry, would it?" Neal asked in a small voice, and Emma glared back.

"No. Doesn't matter now, I suppose it's fitting, anyway—you getting arrested and locked up in a jail cell. You turned me in and I went to Phoenix, now I arrest you and I get to keep you here for as long as I see fit."

"Poetic justice I suppose you'd call it, right?" Neal answered with a shrug.

"Yeah, poetic justice," Emma echoed before taking him by the upper arm, opening up one of the cells, and leading him inside before locking the door. She tossed the keys over to Charming, who helped August over to the other unoccupied cell and did the same.

"Look, I know we're not on the best of terms right now, but would you happen to have any paper towels or something for a bloody nose, some Tylenol extra strength, and an ice pack?" August called from where he was slumped on the bed and against the wall.

"I do…" Emma said slowly, considering whether she should even be decent enough to give him any of those things. Her eyes met Charming's and with a reluctant sigh, she finally conceded. "Fine. I don't have an ice pack, but I've got some paper towels and a couple Tylenol. But it's only because I don't want you bleeding all over that jail cell," she said grudgingly, heading off to go fetch the requested items.

"I get some, too, right?" Neal called after her, a request that received no reply and thus he could only hope she had heard and would comply.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, like I said, lots of language. I hope there wasn't too much? Anyways, let me know what you guys think! Was it everything you hoped it'd be? More? Less? I know Charming didn't throw a blow at anyone, but at least Emma did. **

**So yeah, please do leave a review and let me know what you thought of this chapter! I always love hearing what you guys have to say!  
**


	7. No Fury Like a Woman Scorned

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm so sorry for not updating sooner! I broke my streak of one to two day updates, but I have a good reason! That shooting in Connecticut really just threw me off on Friday and I could really get anything done, not even studying for finals. And that's what the entire week and my entire weekend was all about, as well as Monday night. But now finals are done and I'm free until January 9th, so huzzah! Expect some more updates now that that's over with! And I'm sorry for making you all wait.**

**I hope this chapter lives up to some expectations! I put in a little bit of Charming and Emma bonding, only a bit. And there's some Henry and Snow and Henry, Snow, and Neal bonding, even!  
**

**Also, I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far? Hopefully that makes up for the delay with this chapter!  
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**And lastly, sorry if the title is stupid. I honestly don't know how I come up with these titles, but they're really not my thing. So sorry.**

* * *

Henry honestly tried to wait and be patient to hear a word from Charming or Emma about the fight they had been called out to. He went and got himself a glass of juice and sat at the table with his grandmother, but ten minutes of silence wasn't easy to bear. Even Snow was getting anxious, twiddling her thumbs and glancing at the door, and finally, Henry couldn't take it.

"Can't we go meet them up at the station and find out what's going on? I can't sit here and wait like this anymore," the ten-year-old complained.

"We've only been sitting here for…" Snow checked the clock, "…ten minutes. We should stay here and be patient, I'm sure we'll hear from them soon."

Henry heaved a sigh and flopped his head onto his arms laid on the table. "Can you answer a question of mine while we're waiting, then?"

"Okay, sure, what's your question, Henry?"

"Do you think my mom still loves Neal? Because when she was talking about him, it sounded like she really loved him eleven years ago and I think there's a part of her that still does today."

"Why do you say that?" Snow wondered, eying Henry curiously. "Not that I think you're wrong, but I'm just curious," she clarified, seeing as she thought the same thing. But interestingly enough, the ten-year-old really had a way with people and was rather keen on noticing things that sometimes they didn't want anyone picking up on or that they themselves didn't even realize. Snow and everyone else had learned rather quickly that Henry was just good at reading people.

"Because she was so happy when she told me about how they met and what their first kiss was like. And she was crying, too, although she refused to admit it when I pointed it out," Henry told his grandmother.

"When she told me everything, it seemed like that to me, too. And trust me, I know love when I see it."

Henry smiled, no doubt in his mind that she really could. She and Charming were true loves and after having loved Charming for so long and becoming familiar with the way he gazed dotingly at her or the way they spoke about each other, if anyone was familiar with the signs of love it was her. "So you think she does?" he said hopefully.

Snow had a feeling Henry was thinking there was still hope for his parents. Hope that they'd fall in love again and perhaps that they'd even become a full family. She couldn't help but hope for the same, not only for Henry's sake but for Emma's sake. All she wanted was for her daughter to be happy and to find the man that was right for her. Neal had hurt her before, but he had only been thinking of doing right by Emma and trying to give her a better life. He had thought that the life they were leading together wasn't fair to her and not good enough for her and he had sought to change it. Perhaps things had gotten messed up and perhaps it hadn't really been his place to decide, but Snow couldn't help but think that Neal had had the best of intentions.

She and Charming had done their fair share of sacrificing and letting go for each other's sake and even for Emma's, so she understood where Neal's heart had been when he had made his choice. Snow couldn't blame the man for that, even if the choice had ended up hurting Emma. He had never wanted to hurt her and Snow believed that. The only issue was getting Emma to believe it, and that was going to be a much more monumental feat.

Snow nodded in response to Henry's question. "Yes, I think Emma does still love him, but she's too afraid to tell anyone that, let alone admit it to herself. She's scared because she's been heartbroken already and she doesn't want it to happen again."

"But now she's got us and she's starting to open up more, right?"

"She is. So maybe there's hope," Snow said with a smile, and Henry smiled back.

"I think there is. But I think we should go to the sheriff's station to find out," he said, trying once again to persuade her to leave the apartment and go see what had happened with Neal and August.

Snow rolled her eyes. "Of course you do. We should stay here, though. We don't want to get in the way."

"Come on, Grams, please?" Henry pleaded, giving her a puppy dog look that was causing her resistance to wither.

Snow caved. "Alright, fine. But we have to be quiet and stay out of the way!" she warned him. Henry gave a quick nod to show he understood the condition before jumping up from his chair and scurrying to the door, Snow not far behind.

* * *

"So, Deputy Charming, I suppose it's about time we interviewed these two," Emma said, leaning against her desk with her arms folded. David was beside her, leaning against the desk as well as they both looked over at the men occupying the cells of Storybrooke's sheriff's station.

"You think so?" Charming answered, giving her a sidelong glance. "Maybe we should wait…" A still somewhat-irate Emma raised an eyebrow that made him quickly attempt to explain himself before he lost the title of Only-Guy-In-The-Building-To-Not-Receive-A-Blow-To-The-Face. "I just want to make sure you're not going to have anymore…outbursts. I understand you're angry at them both and trust me, I'd love to do more than just hit them in the face, too, but we're not exactly in the position to do that. So I just want to make sure we've both got ourselves calmed down before we do anything," he clarified, and Emma nodded understandingly.

"I'm fine," she tersely replied.

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking concerned. "Because we have plenty of time if you want to just sit here and talk," he assured her, wanting for her to be able to trust him and talk to him when she had a problem like this she needed to sort out. "Now that I know I'm your father and after missing so much of your life, I just want to be there for you. I mean, I know the talking stuff isn't my strong suit, but I'll do whatever I can."

The sheriff's expression softened a bit. She couldn't very well snap at him for that no matter how bad a mood she was in. "Thank you for the concern. Really. But I swear I'll be alright. I just…need a bit of time."

With a nod of understanding, David let the matter go. "Alright, if you say so."

"So, any idea who we should start off with?"

"Why don't we talk to August first," David decided, and Emma got up from her spot and walked over to the cell where the man still sat nursing his bloodied and bruised face.

"We need to get your statement," She told him, hardly giving August the time to even acknowledge her and Charming before she unlocked his cell and leading him away, leaving Neal to sit alone in the front of the sheriff's station.

It was during Emma and Charming's conversation with August that Henry and Snow happened to arrive. Upon hearing the door opening and the new company in the room, Neal got to his feet and went straight to the front of his cell.

"Neal!" Snow gasped. "Oh, wow. You uh…you look like you took quite a blow," she couldn't help but remark, shocked at the state of the man she had only met earlier this morning. He looked absolutely terrible!

"You're Mary Margaret, right?" Neal asked, not commenting on her remark on his condition at the moment. He knew he looked terrible; in fact he felt terrible.

"Yeah. Well, actually it's Snow…you know about the curse, right?"

Neal nodded. "Yeah, August mentioned it to me. So you're Snow as in Snow White, then," he said with an air of amusement. She nodded in confirmation. "And you're Emma's mom?" Again, Snow wordlessly answered. "After all these years she finally found you," he quietly remarked with a soft kind of smile. "Good, I'm glad."

Snow smiled brightly back. "Me, too," She couldn't help but say, as she was just as glad to have found Emma, too. After all those years Emma had spent looking for her and Charming, thinking they didn't love her, thinking she was alone….she deserved some happiness. And Snow and Charming, of course, were absolutely thrilled to have their family reunited.

"Funny that you should be her mom, though," Neal noted with a hint of humor. "She thought she was nothing special and here it turns out she's a savior and princess and she's actually got a whole family that cares for her." _I just wish I could've been a part of it, _was the unspoken bit he wished for more than anything, but he figured Snow and Henry didn't want to join in on his pity party.

"You still love my mom, don't you," Henry said, and it was much more of a statement than a question. He seemed very sure of the answer.

And sure enough, he was right as Neal gave a small nod and a fond smile and admitted, "Yeah, I still do. Even if she hates me and I understand why, it's not gonna change anything."

Henry seemed to like his answer, a gleeful, hopeful expression on his face. "I know she probably doesn't want me saying this, but I think she still loves you, too," he whispered quietly, as if he were afraid his mother might come in at any moment and yell at him for what she would probably call 'leading Neal on.' Because of course Emma Swan wasn't going to admit she still had feelings for Neal Cassidy. No, she was going to say she hated him. But even if she kept up the lie to try to fool herself, she wasn't fooling Henry or Snow or Neal. Perhaps she wasn't fooling anyone.

"Henry," Snow interjected warily, because while she knew it was the truth she knew just as much as Henry did that his mother wouldn't like it if and when she found out that he'd told Neal such a thing.

"But it's true!"

"You think so, kid?"

Henry nodded. "Absolutely. She's just too afraid to admit it because she doesn't want to get hurt again."

The ex-thief in the cell frowned, shoulders slumping as he looked down at the floor. "I really messed her up, didn't I? God, I knew she already had a tough time letting people in, but I made it a thousand times worse." He'd beaten himself up about it a thousand times but this time was by far the hardest as he was now seeing first-hand the damage his abandoning her had caused.

Snow shook her head. "Neal, please don't beat—don't be hard on yourself. She's been through a lot and it's just going to take time. I think she'll come around soon," she told him reassuringly.

His eyes shot up to meet hers and he looked surprised at what she'd said. "But you're her mother and I'm the guy responsible for ruining her life. I'm the reason she's in jail," he reminded her, because it seemed she didn't fully understand. "Did Emma tell you everything that I did?"

"Yes, she did, but while Emma may not forgive you, I do, because I understand why you did it because I'm her mother. I had to give her up only moments after first laying my eyes on her and I knew sending her to some unknown world all alone would be so hard for her, but I was doing what I thought was best for her. Charming and I thought we were protecting her from a harmful curse as well as saving everyone in the Enchanted Forest. And you were trying to give her the best chance she could have just like we did. I can't really blame you for that," she said, "Even if it did cause Emma a lot of pain. Sometimes we have to let go or harm the ones we love in order to help them and it isn't ever easy."

"You're one wise lady, you know that?"

Snow blushed. "I wouldn't say wise…" she argued.

And before any of the three of them could say anything more, they heard an angered shout from down the hall. "You had no right!"

"Emma," Snow murmured concernedly, glancing in the direction of the shouting. "Are she and Charming…?"

"Interrogating August? Yep," Neal said with a nod. "And it would seem they've gotten to the worst bit."

Henry's face fell. "Uh-oh."

There was a violent jiggling of the doorknob that the trio could hear even from down the hall before Emma's indignant voice bellowed again, "Is there anything in my life that's gone wrong that isn't your fault?"

"Hey, I know I messed a lot up, but you can't blame me for every—"

"I don't want to hear your excuses, August. I just wish you were still a block of wood so I could chop your sorry ass to pieces and use it to light my fireplace." Not that she even had a fireplace…

"Sorry, Emma, you missed your chance by a couple weeks," came August's reply, sounding more amused than apologetic. The blonde let out a frustrated cry.

"Emma, where are you going?" That was Charming, sounding like he was trying to calm her down and keep her in the room.

"I'm sorry, David, I thought I was calm but this…I can't deal with this crap anymore. You can take Mr. _Booth _back to his cell," Emma said before marching out of the interrogation room and heading down the hall toward them all.

Snow and Henry shared a glance and then looked to Neal, both unsure of what to do. Neal shook his head, looking a tad afraid and very clueless. He hadn't really ever had to deal with a raging Emma Swan before.

But it seemed the two were already out of options as the loud clicking of Emma's boots came to an abrupt halt. "What are you two doing here?" she demanded, and Henry and Snow turned around to see a very cross Emma standing with her arms folded across her chest.

"We just wanted to see what had happened with the fight between August and Neal," Snow explained hurriedly. "What happened back there?"

"Oh, not much except that I learned that all the shitty things that happened in my life are due to goddamn Pinocchio," Emma hissed. "I need some time alone," she added before plucking her badge from her belt and setting it down on her desk as she stalked off.

"What about me! Do you mean to tell me I have to stay here overnight?" Neal called after her.

"If I can stand eleven months in a cell, you can spend one night." Neal cringed and even Snow and Henry winced at the harshness and the meaning behind her words. Neal knew she was right, though, and he should've thought more carefully about his words. But Emma still had one more thing to add. "And don't worry, David'll be watching you like a hawk so don't even think of trying anything," she called back to him before the door to the sheriff's station slammed shut.

Neal groaned. "Oh, great, Deputy Dad is the jail keeper."

"Gramps isn't that bad," Henry argued, but Neal shook his head.

"Henry, he's Emma's dad and the way he sees it August and I hurt his daughter and he's probably not going to take well to that, is he?" He said, his eyes shifting from Henry to Snow.

"He does…tend to get defensive…" she said slowly with a frown, "But I don't think you've got anything to worry about from him, Neal."

"I hope you're right."

"I'm sure you'll be out of here by tomorrow, anyway," Henry added. "Most people here don't stay in jail for too long."

"Is that because there's only two cells or because they only commit petty crimes?" Neal wondered.

Henry's brow creased. "Maybe both," he decided after a moment's thought, and for some reason that got all three of them smiling before August strode out, Charming following right behind him as he escorted him back to his cell.

"What are you two doing here?" David asked in confusion as he saw Snow and Henry standing by Neal's cell.

Henry decided to explain things this time. "We wanted to know what happened with the fight, so we came over here to find out and were talking with Neal while we waited for you guys to finish talking with August."

Charming sighed, but Snow could see the upward curl of his lips that was the telltale sign of a smile he was struggling to hold back. "I should've known you two would end up coming here even though we said to stay at home."

Snow and Henry both innocently grinned back at him, Snow shrugging. "Couldn't help ourselves, I suppose."

"Did Emma leave, then?" Charming asked, eyes scanning the room and realizing she wasn't anywhere to be seen. Snow nodded, telling him about how she had said she needed some time alone and that he was to watch over the guys until she got back before she ran off. "You're not going to go after her, then?"

His wife shook her head. "No, I think she really just needs time to think about things and to calm down. If she needs us, she'll let us know." Although a part of her did desire to chase after Emma. In her state of mind, she might do something reckless. But then Snow thought of all the other hard nights Emma had faced in Storybrooke even before the curse had been broken; her daughter's "bad day" routine usually consisted of going to a cabinet, getting a glass and a bottle of liquor, and drinking until she felt a little better. Snow hadn't particularly liked this habit of Emma's even when she was Mary Margaret, but now, being her mother, it made her a tad more uncomfortable. She didn't want Emma to simply drink her problems away and try to forget them; she had people to talk to now, to confide in, who loved her and would listen to whatever she had to say and do their best to help her.

Hopefully the routine would be a bit different now and Emma would come to her senses and look for one of those people with whom she could discuss whatever was plaguing her mind.

But for now, Snow supposed that she and Charming would just have to sit tight because sometimes, parenting wasn't about always jumping into action but knowing when to hold back and to wait.

"Why don't you and Henry head back home and wait for Emma, then," Charming suggested. "I'll stay and make sure these two behave," he said, giving both August and Neal a pointed look that told them they'd better control themselves and not cause any more trouble.

"Alright. I'll see you later," Snow said, giving him a peck on the lips. "I love you."

Charming grinned. He never did get tired of hearing her say that. "Love you, too. Bye, Henry," he said, turning to Henry and ruffling the kid's hair.

"Bye, Gramps," Henry said cheerfully before he and Snow headed out the door.

Neal heaved a sigh and collapsed on the bed behind him. "Let the boredom begin," he deadpanned as the door to the station closed once again and only the three men were left in the station.

* * *

**A/N: So there you all have it! Chapter 7! Did you enjoy the bit of Henry and Snow and Henry, Snow, and Neal bonding that I threw in? I hope you all enjoyed the chapter as a whole and whether you did or not, please let me know with a quick review letting me know what you liked or disliked! I always appreciate everyone's feedback and do my best to respond to everyone. **

**I look forward to what you all have to say! And look out for the next chapter soon! Sooner than this one came out, anyway.  
**


	8. As Long as It Takes

**A/N: Meh, not sure how I feel about this chapter but...hopefully you guys like it more than I do. There's some fun little bits in here, though, so I hope you enjoy those! Sorry it took a little longer to post this than I thought, but things have been a little crazy today. As compensation, this is now the new longest chapter. **

**And by the way, thank you to all of you for an astounding amount of reviews and for helping me get over 100 followers! I'm amazed, really, I am! It's so wonderful to know that you guys like this story so much! Hopefully I don't disappoint you guys!  
**

**Anyways, enough of my babbling. I hope you like this chapter! Let me know what you think when you're through!**

* * *

After leaving the station, Emma immediately got into her small yellow bug and drove out to the outskirts of town where she knew she wouldn't be bothered. And for a while, she just leant back in the seat, closed her eyes, and took deep breaths to try to calm herself down so she could think about everything.

She sat there in the dark, alone in her car at the edge of town for about twenty minutes or so before realizing two things. The first was that she was fiddling with the swan pendant around her neck without even having realized it (which irked because it was a reminder of Neal and August, her two big problems at the moment that she was really trying to forget about right now). And the second was that she needed a drink.

So just as Snow had predicted, Emma ended up driving back into Storybrooke and entering Granny's. As soon as the distraught sheriff shuffled into the diner, Red was moving about behind the counter, knowing without even having to ask what Emma needed. By the time Emma had plopped herself down on a bar stool, Red had already grabbed a glass and a bottle of whiskey and had set them on the counter in front of her.

"Thanks, Red," Emma muttered, grabbing the bottle and pouring herself a glass.

"Anything else I can do to help?" Red asked, eying the sheriff worriedly. Earlier, she had heard the racket going on from her place in the diner and had gone to check it out. She had a good idea what was probably troubling the blonde and only wished to help. But she also knew Emma wasn't always one for talking about her troubles, and it was more likely she would turn down Red's offer of a pair of ears to listen but still, she wasn't going to not offer.

"No, but thank you," Emma replied before gulping down a large swig of whiskey.

"Let me know if you need anything else," Red told her before heading off to take care of the rest of her customers.

It was a little while later, as Emma was pouring a second glass, when someone else trudged into the diner. She headed straight for the unaware blonde at the counter, hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. "Sheriff Swan," she barked, and Emma set the bottle of whiskey and her glass down.

"Oh good God, I don't need this right now," she mumbled to herself with a groan before turning to face the Evil Queen herself, Regina. "And how can I help you today, Regina?" she asked, trying to keep her tone civil. She and Regina may have worked out an agreement about their splitting time with Henry, and they might act friendly enough toward each other when Henry was present, but otherwise….

The fact that Henry had started calling Emma 'mom' and his now having a complete family had probably put Regina in an even fouler mood than before the curse had been broken. Emma wouldn't have thought it possible if she hadn't seen Regina's new level of spitefulness first hand.

"I heard there's a new visitor in town and apparently he knows you."

No. No, she did _not _need this right now. She was trying to forget about all this right now.

"And what if there is?"

Regina narrowed her eyes at her, the irritation radiating off of her like a wave of heat from a stove. "There's a rumor going around that he's Henry's father," she hissed in a low voice, although if the rumor was already making its way around Storybrooke, there was little reason to keep her voice quiet like this was still a secret.

Emma huffed a sigh. "Alright, fine. Yes, he is. Are you happy?"

Regina scowled. "No, I'm not. I thought you said his father wasn't an issue. You said he was _gone."_

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too," Emma bitterly replied, taking a shot of whiskey from her glass on the counter.

"Well if he's here for Henry—"

"He's not here for Henry, he didn't even know about him until today," Emma interrupted impatiently.

"Then what _is _he here for."

Emma rolled her eyes. As if the answer wasn't obvious. "Me. He wants…he wants a second chance. But that's not any of your business. All that should matter to you is that he's not going to try to take Henry away from _anyone_."

"And you're sure of that?" Regina asked, raising a skeptical brow.

"Positive."

"And yet you haven't seen him in…how long? Eleven years? Eight? Was that what your prolonged stay in Tallahassee was all about?"

"Tallahassee is _none_ of your damn business. None of this is," Emma said, roughly setting her glass down on the counter. Someone in one of the booths to the right of her gasped and it was then that she realized the entire place had gone dead quiet and was watching their confrontation with both interest and concern. "Way to create a scene in the middle of the freaking diner, by the way."

Regina's lip curled and she ignored the comment, instead leering at the sheriff until she was inches away. "If it's got even the slightest connection to Henry and poses a threat to my relationship with my son, then it _is _my business."

"But I'm telling you he's _not a threat," _Emma insisted in a dangerously calm tone of voice, locking eyes with Regina's. For crying out loud, why did the woman have to view _everything _as a threat to her? Emma would say the Queen was practically paranoid at this point what with the recent threat of Cora and Emma and her newly reunited family.

"If you haven't seen him in so long, how would you even know, Miss Swan? Perhaps he's changed."

"Fine, think whatever you want to, but I know Neal and I _know_ he's not a threat. He didn't come here because of you or Henry or anyone else, he came for me and you've got nothing to worry about. Now why don't you go back to picking your apples or whatever it is you do nowadays," Emma curtly dismissed the Queen, turning away from her and picking up her glass again to finish it off.

From behind her, Emma heard the Queen let out an agitated huff before turning sharply on her heels so fast, the breeze the motion made blew a strand of blonde hair over Emma's shoulder. And then Regina stalked out of the diner just like that, allowing Emma, Red, and the other customers to let out a collective sigh of relief.

"I thought that was going to get a lot uglier," Red said.

"Me, too. All I wanted was a drink or two and some time alone, but of course she had to come and screw it all up," Emma said with a frown. "Well, I guess there's no point in trying to stay here after all that. I think I'll just be headed home." She pulled some money out of her pocket and slapped it on the table.

"Are you sure you're alright to drive home?" Red asked. "You know…after all that?" she eyed the door where Regina had exited. "And that?" she added, nodding to the now empty glass of whiskey.

"I'll be fine," Emma assured her as she got to her feet and headed for the door. "Takes more than that to get me drunk. Thanks, Red."

As soon as she left, Emma pulled her phone out of her back pocket and called up her father. "Hey, David. Did Regina stop by the station?" She had to ask even if she already knew Regina had; how else would the woman have known where to look for her?

"Yeah, she did. I assume you two just had a chat, didn't you? She said she planned to have a word with you after I denied her a conversation with Neal."

"Yeah, I did. It wasn't pleasant. She's under the impression that Neal poses a threat to her custody of Henry and that he's here to ruin things although I tried to tell her that that wasn't true. Neal's only purpose in coming here, as far as I can tell, is just to see me and try to straighten things out, not to steal Henry away. He didn't even know about Henry until this morning."

"That's ridiculous. Then again, she hasn't quite been the same since you and Snow got back," Charming noted with a tone of concern. "I almost thought she might be getting…better until the well incident. She was actually taking precautions to avoid magic and even let Henry stay with me while you two were gone all because she was trying to make him happy and win his trust again. And not to mention she helped to save you and Snow."

"Wish I could've been around to see all that," Emma remarked with a snort of amusement. Of course, the one time in her life Regina seemed to act like a decent human being, Emma had to miss it entirely.

Charming let out a laugh. "I wish it hadn't changed, but it has. She's a lot more…agitated and paranoid."

"Definitely paranoid," Emma agreed as she unlocked her car and hopped inside. "She's probably threatened by the fact that Henry calls me mom now and that he's got me and you and Mary Margaret…and now Neal's shown up," she noted, and she really could understand why Regina might be just a little afraid that she could lose Henry. Didn't mean that any of what she was doing was right, but just that Emma understood why Regina had cause for concern.

"Right. I can understand why she'd feel that way. But to take it out on you?"

"It's not fair, no. Especially since I was really hoping for the rest of the evening to be a little more quiet."

"Are you headed back home then?" Charming wondered, because it sounded like she was ready to retire for the night not because she was tired, but just exasperated. Emma sounded like she was just done with today and everything that it had thrown at her.

"Yeah, I'm headed back home. By the way, I'm sorry for leaving you with guard duty. If you need help, call Leroy. He'd probably be…somewhat willing," She suggested, knowing the once-dwarf could be difficult and crabby sometimes.

"Don't worry about it, Emma, I don't mind," he assured her. "And I won't bother Grumpy. Not that I think he wouldn't be willing to help, but I think I can handle it on my own. I'm not really interested in sleep nowadays. It's a bit hard for me ever since that sleeping curse…"

Emma frowned, realizing that she had just left him and his recently cursed self to watch over Neal and August for the entire not. It didn't seem very fair to him no matter what tumultuous feelings were stirring inside her at the moment. "Wait, David, I can—"

"No, really, Emma, it's fine. I'll stay and watch them for tonight; you've had a hard day. Go get some well-deserved rest," Charming insisted from the other end of the phone, and Emma shook her head and opened her mouth to argue. "Don't worry about me, I'll be alright. I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight."

"David—" she tried to interject, feeling a tad guilty now. She should've stayed and let him go home with Snow. He needed her right now after having endured that sleeping curse. She knew her father had had trouble sleeping this past week since her and Snow's return. Even though he had only been under the sleeping curse for a little while, a curse was a curse, and a sleeping curse wasn't an easy one to bear.

"Goodnight, Emma," he repeated with a tone of finality, leaving no room for argument. "I love you."

Emma paused. Her newly-found parents had been saying that a lot to her, throwing the phrase out like it was something casual and yet significant that they felt the utmost desire to announce to her as often as they could. She understood why, especially after what had happened in the Enchanted Forest and at Lake Nostos, but she often wasn't sure how to respond to the phrase having hardly ever heard it in her twenty-eight years. Usually it made her frown in confusion or freeze in surprise and discomfort.

"I um—I love you, too," she managed to awkwardly croak. God, this was so odd for her. The only people she had ever said those words to had been Neal and Henry and it was just hard for her to get used to using them with two new people in her life. Yes, they were her parents, but it wasn't as if she had been raised knowing that fact like it was truer than the fact that the ocean was blue and the grass was green. Unlike other children who had known since the first moment they could ever remember who their parents were, Emma had not. She hadn't grown up being told they loved her or telling them she loved them back. This was new and it was taking some time to get used to.

Even if the response had sounded somewhat forced and plenty awkward, she somehow just knew he had to be smiling on the other end of the line. He had to be. He was probably grinning like an idiot because no matter how convincing it had sounded, Emma had still said the words and that was reason enough for Charming to celebrate a little.

"See you in the morning," he said, and then hung up.

Emma turned the keys in the ignition and drove back home.

* * *

Emma headed straight for the sheriff's station as early as she could the next morning. When she entered the building, Neal was still sprawled out on his bed fast asleep and August was sitting up, slumped against the wall and twiddling his thumbs looking bored out of his mind. As for her father, he was sitting at his desk and reading a book he must've found lying around somewhere because she knew he hadn't brought one with him when they had first arrived at the sheriff's station the night before.

"Morning, David," she greeted. "They didn't give you trouble, did they?"

He shook his head. "No, they were pretty quiet. I actually got a fair bit of reading done," he told her, showing her how many pages he had read.

"Wow, _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_. Never pegged you for a mystery reader," she said, brow raised in surprise. "You must really be enjoying it, huh," Emma noted, seeing he had read nearly two-hundred pages.

Charming chuckled. "Yeah, who knew?" he exclaimed, sounding just as pleasantly surprised as she had been. "I blame this job for piquing my interest and the fact that it seemed to be one of the only books lying around that seemed interesting. I'm guessing it belonged to Graham because I don't think you're a mystery reader, either, am I right?"

Emma shook her head. "No, definitely not mine. Must've been Graham's," she concluded, feeling a twist in her stomach at the mention of the previous sheriff's name.

"I know you two were close. I'm sorry I wasn't actually there to help you through it."

Emma shook her head. "It's okay. I'm—it's way in the past now," she told him, but that feeling inside her seemed to want to say otherwise.

"Well in that case, how about we discuss what we're going to do about these two," Charming said, sensing that she wanted to change the subject. And, after all, they really did need to discuss what they were going to do with Neal and August. They couldn't keep the pair of them locked up in the sheriff's station forever.

"Just let them both go. I don't want to have to put up with them in here any longer. I think Neal's pretty much got it all out of his system, anyway."

Charming looked utterly surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah. You got the keys?"

Charming nodded. "I'll get right on it," he said, pulling the keys to the cells from his pocket and heading for them, but Emma stopped him by reaching out and taking hold of the keys.

"No, let me handle it. You go ahead and head home." He'd had a long night and he'd deserved the day off.

Charming opened his mouth to protest. He couldn't leave, he was the deputy and he was here to help her with whatever she needed. He couldn't just slack off on the job and go home. "But Emma—"

"No buts. Go ahead home, David. Mary Margaret was concerned about you and you should head home to let her know you're fine. Maybe try to get some sleep. I'm giving you the day off, so take it," she insisted, leading him toward the door.

"You know, the 'no buts' thing was supposed to be my line."

"Well nothing about this parent-child relationship is really normal, is it?" Emma answered, and Charming shrugged.

"I suppose not," he reluctantly agreed. "But it's still supposed to be my line."

"Sorry, maybe next time."

Her father sighed. "Okay, fine. Are you sure you'll be alright here by yourself, though? You're not going to assault August as soon as I leave, are you?"

"No, of course not."

"Because you did say you would chop him up and toss him into your imaginary fireplace yesterday," Charming reminded her.

"It'll all be fine. Now, please, just take your day off, okay? You've earned it," she said, practically shoving him out the door.

"Alright, alright. Bye, Emma. Don't be late for dinner."

"I won't," she assured him. "See you later."

After watching him leave, Emma turned around to face the men still occupying the only two jail cells in Storybrooke. "Alright, you two are free to go," she announced to the pair, approaching August's cell first. She unlocked the door and August, who had been sitting and watching her and David's entire interaction take place, got up and strode out of his cell, stopping to face her.

"You know, I'm proud of you, Emma. I was sort of expecting a worse reaction from you yesterday, but you really showed a lot of self-control. Nicely done."

Emma glared back at him, looking completely uninspired by his words of praise. "Yeah, well you'd better get out of here before I decide to change all that."

August put his hands up defensively. "Right, sorry, I'm going. Thank you, though," he said as he slowly backed away from her and toward the door. Emma watched him exit before turning moving to Neal's cell and unlocking his door.

"Hey, you awake?" she called, noticing that he was still sprawled out on the bed. "Neal?"

He pushed himself off the bed and rose to his feet without a word, but he didn't quite look like he had just opened his eyes.

"How long have you been awake?" she wondered.

"A while," he answered vaguely as he rubbed his neck and smoothed out his hair and his shirt. "Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask. Is this Graham guy you and your dad were talking about some recent ex-boyfriend or something?"

Emma tensed and that pang in her heart swelled up again. "If you're worried about competition, there's no need. He's long gone."

"Em, I'm sorry," Neal murmured, the ever-so-apologetic look in his eyes forcing her to turn away. He'd already seen enough of her vulnerable side and after what he'd done to her, however sorry he was for it, she wasn't prepared to open up to him and let him see that side of her again so soon. It was none of his business, anyway. "I had no idea…"

"Don't worry about it. I'm fine." Emma closed her eyes and took a deep breath, turning back around to face him. "But before you leave, let me just warn you to be careful in this town. I may have broken the curse, but there's magic here now and there's also a lot of trouble and it usually comes in the form of Regina, who is someone you want to do your best to avoid meeting. And if you can't and she ever offers you an apple or anything else, don't take it," she warned him.

"Let me guess, she's the Evil Queen?"

Emma nodded. "I thought I'd give you fair warning. I might hate what you did, Neal, but I won't feed you to the dogs."

"Right. Thanks for the tip. I'll see you around, maybe," Neal said as he headed for the door.

"Wait, how long do you plan on staying?" Emma asked, because while she knew he was staying, she had no idea for exactly how long.

"As long as it takes to win you back," Neal answered, lip curling into a small smile that he flashed at her from over his shoulder before stepping out the door. And Emma was left standing there staring after him.

* * *

**A/N: So, what'd you all think? Yay or nay? I hope adding the mention of Graham wasn't too much or out of character. But did you enjoy the continued Charming/Emma bonding and the confrontation with Regina? At least Neal now finally knows to be wary of Regina, especially since she thinks that he's going to want to be a part of Henry's life now that he knows about his kid.  
**

**And I'll let you in on a little secret about next chapter as I'm not sure with Christmas coming up and all that how soon I'll be able to write and post it: Now that Henry knows his parents do still love each other, he's totally going to plan to help Neal out with that plan of his to win Emma back. **

**Anyways, I hope you liked it and, in case I don't post again before Christmas, Merry Christmas to those of you who do celebrate the holiday!  
**


	9. Initiating Operation Bug

**A/N: **Hey guys, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! And thanks for all the lovely reviews for last chapter! I'm over 100 reviews now and I'm completely blown away by that because I never, ever expected to get such a wonderful response when I started this story! So again, thank you all, you're absolutely amazing!

And because you're all amazing, I am so sorry that this chapter took ages! I had a busy few days around Christmas and just got around to writing the chapter today. Sorry it's been like a week, guys! But this chapter has got lots of Neal/Henry bonding that I hope you'll like and next chapter starts the fun stuff involving Henry's plan to help Neal win Emma back!

Please be warned that I didn't go back and read over this entire thing because I was lazy and wanted to get this chapter out. So I apologize if there are any typos or canonization issues (like in chapter 2 when I accidentally said Emma had 6 months in jail and not 11, which I fixed, by the way) or something of the sort.

And without further delay, here's chapter 9! Enjoy!

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Neal Cassidy's first day of freedom after getting out of jail began with him learning that there was a reason that everyone came to Granny's for food, besides the fact that it was quite possibly the only place around to get some if you didn't want to buy it and cook it yourself. And the company to be found there wasn't too bad, either. Ruby, for instance, had warmed up to him almost instantly despite knowing who he was. She had chatted with him for a bit while he was eating his scrambled eggs and had even gone so far as to lean in towards him like they were sharing some deep secret—which, given what he knew about girls and gossip he supposed, they were—and say that although she'd hate Ruby for saying it, "It'd be nice to see Emma with someone."

As he had left the diner, Red had cheerfully called out to him, "Best of luck, new guy!" and sent him a wink and a wave from over her shoulder as she went to take a third cup of coffee over to a tired-looking Dr. Whale.

Unfortunately, as wonderful as Ruby turned out to be, she was actually just about the only person in town who was friendly to him, let alone spoke to him. Granny was still upset with him for starting a fight in her inn and the rest of the townspeople clearly didn't like strangers like Neal very much. Henry had alluded to as much when he first came to Emma and her parents' apartment, but he had never known the full implications of what the kid meant until now.

So after having breakfast and realizing that most of the town probably wouldn't take too well to a stranger wandering about their town, Neal Cassidy holed himself up in his room with nothing but his iPod and a book to keep him company.

That is until someone came knocking at the door. It took him a moment to hear it over the music he had blaring in his ears, but when he noticed a disturbance in rhythm he pulled his ear buds out and listened closer.

Quickly he rose from his reclined position on the bed and headed for the door, ready to defend himself against the onslaught from Granny that he had been expecting all day. Earlier Ruby had told him about the one real policy that Granny adhered to, most notably when Emma first came to Storybrooke, and now he feared that he might be kicked out of the inn with nowhere else to go. He couldn't let that happen, though. He still needed to work things out with Emma and win her back, and he wasn't leaving until he did. He knew she still loved him, he _knew _it and for that reason he wasn't giving in.

"Look, I know there's a 'no felons' policy, but please, you can't kick me out because…" He began to say, having already prepared his argument earlier, but he trailed off as he turned the knob on the door and was met with an empty hallway….until he looked down and spotted Henry cheerily looking up at him.

Neal's brow knitted in confusion. "Kid, what are you doing here? Don't you have school or something?"

"It's 4:15, I got out of school already," Henry answered automatically, holding up his wrist and pointing to his watch to indicate the time.

"Right," Neal said, duly taking note of the fact, but he frowned as he realized that if the ten-year-old wasn't supposed to be at school, wasn't he then supposed to be at home with his mother? "Does your mom know you're here?"

"Which one?" Henry asked, and Neal narrowed his eyes at the kid for being smart with him.

"You know which one. Emma. Does she know you're here?" Neal asked, because if Henry was here it was best Emma know about it. But as for Regina, she sounded like a much less understanding person that he'd rather _didn't _find out that Henry was sneaking visits to Neal. If she was as bad as Emma implied and as evil as the stepmother from Snow White that she was supposed to be, then he definitely didn't want to deal with that.

The grin on Henry's face curled down into a frown. "Well no, but…" he began guiltily.

Neal kneeled down in front of Henry. "You shouldn't go places without anyone knowing where you are. Right now I don't think Emma likes me very much and I'm sure she wouldn't be too happy to hear you snuck over here to see me."

"But I didn't exactly sneak over here. At least, not without telling someone. I asked Grams if it was okay and she said that it was as long as I didn't stay too long," Henry explained.

"Alright, well I suppose that's better, although I'm still not sure Emma would like it if she found out that you came to see me without her permission. Why is it you came here, anyway?" Neal asked, although he could already guess what it was Henry wanted.

"I wanted to get to know you, of course," Henry said with a playfully exaggerating tone. And then something caught his eye that made him push past Neal and step into his room. Neal shut the door behind him and turned to see what had caught the boy's attention.

"Hey, you've got a dream catcher!" He noted excitedly, eying the object that Neal had hung on the bedpost. He probably would've reached for it if it wasn't just slightly out of arm's length for him.

"Yeah, I've had it for ages…" Neal said fondly, smiling a little as he recalled how he had come across the thing.

"Where'd you get it? Do you suffer from bad dreams and carry it around all the time?" Henry wondered, and Neal smirked at how curious and eager the boy was.

"I got it in a hotel room in Oregon. I…sort of stole it. Which was wrong, okay? Stealing is wrong," Neal said, pointing a finger at Henry and eying him sternly. He figured Henry probably already knew that, but he wasn't going to take any chances and risk the kid going back home and mentioning his long-lost dad had told him it was okay to steal. As unlikely as the situation was, Neal figured if he was Henry's dad, he might as well act a bit like it.

"I know," Henry said with a giggle. "My mom told me that when she told me about you and her."

"So you know where this came from?" Neal asked, gesturing to the dream catcher.

"I don't think she ever mentioned it, actually," Henry said somewhat disappointedly. "But she didn't get to even finish telling me everything because she got that call about you and August fighting outside of Granny's."

"Right…" Neal said, glancing down at the carpet. It wasn't exactly his proudest moment. Not that he didn't regret giving August his just deserts… "Fighting's wrong, too, by the way. Don't pick fights with people," he added, throwing in the life lesson since it seemed appropriate.

Henry smiled. "I know that, too. So what's the dream catcher got to do with you and my mom?"

"Well, we had just stolen from a store and happened by this hotel with an unoccupied room, so we went in and found it inside. We decided to keep it and after…after she was gone I took it with me. I've kept it with me every night for eleven years," Neal admitted, staring at the dream catcher with a sort of far-away look in his eyes.

Henry watched Neal silently with a look of pure awe. He really did still love Emma…if only Henry could make her see that.

"I heard my mom and grandparents talking. She said you told her you weren't leaving until you got her back. I want to help," Henry abruptly announced, unexpectedly breaking the silence that had fallen between them. Neal pivoted, snapping around to look at him.

"What?"

"I've always wanted to meet my dad and for the longest time I thought he was dead. But now I know you're not, that you're here, and you still love Emma and we all know she loves you, too. She's just having trouble seeing it just like she had trouble seeing the truth about the curse. I want to help you both," Henry said, practically pleading with Neal. And that pleading tone along with the longing, desperate gleam in his son's eyes were difficult to resist.

But no, as much as he wanted to win Emma back, he wasn't letting their kid get involved in this. Neal shook his head at Henry, feeling somewhat guilty about denying the kid. But that was what parenting was about, right? You can't always give your kid what they want; you can't always give into their desires. "Sorry, Henry, but I don't think it's a good idea. I'm sure I'll find a way, but thank you for offering."

"But I've done something like this before! I helped her believe in the curse, so maybe I can help her believe in you again," Henry desperately insisted.

"I'm sorry, Henry, but I don't want to get you mixed up in this. It's not exactly the same as helping her break a curse; it's about love, and love's a pretty tricky thing," Neal patiently attempted to explain.

The frown on Henry's face grew and the ex-thief found that he really didn't like seeing that expression on his son's face. So he made his best attempt to get him to smile again.

"Hey, I'm sorry," he said for perhaps the third or fourth time. "But I'll keep you updated, okay? And maybe I'll even come to you for advice about stuff! How's that sound?"

"It's better than nothing, I guess…" Henry answered none-too-convincingly with a shrug.

"So is that all you came over here for? To try to help me?" Neal asked, because if that was all, it was probably best if he took Henry home now before Emma found out where he had gone.

"Well I did want to get to know you some more," Henry admitted. "We didn't get to talk for very long at the station."

"Alright," Neal conceded, moving to the bed and sitting down at the edge of it. He patted the space next to him as an invitation for Henry to join him, which he happily did. "Ask me anything you want to know. Favorite band, favorite color, my birthday…Whatever floats your boat, kid."

"Okay," Henry said thoughtfully, looking around the room for a moment, the dream catcher catching his eye again, as he took a moment to think of what he wanted to ask. And then when he seemed to have finally found his first question, he looked back over at Neal with a curious gaze and fired away. "What did you do after you had to leave Emma? Where did you go?"

Well that wasn't the question he had been expecting, but it was fair enough. He _had _told Henry to ask him anything.

"I went to Vancouver for about six months before deciding it didn't feel right. It was mainly just a place to go while I waited for the watch thing to blow over and when I knew it must've, I returned to the States and decided to go to New York. I'd always wanted to go there and so I did. I found an apartment for cheap in Manhattan and got a job pretty decent job. I spent all my time since then working my way up from there. I found a better job, got a better apartment…and eventually I got a postcard from Storybrooke. From August," Neal explained, getting up from the bed and walking over to the nightstand. The postcard was sitting right there with the picture side facing up. He headed back over to the edge where Henry was patiently waiting and showed the card to him.

"'Broken,'" Henry read with a hint of fascination. "How long ago did you get it?"

"About a month ago, but I was afraid to come for a while because as much as I loved Emma and wanted to see her again, I knew she wouldn't want to see me. In her eyes I was the guy she loved who betrayed her. And I didn't even know about her not getting the money or being pregnant with you," Neal said. To be honest, he wasn't sure if knowing he had a son would've motivated him to come or scared him even more. "I was afraid of what her reaction to my showing up would be, but after sitting in my room debating it with myself for days, weeks even, I finally made up my mind."

"And you decided to come here," Henry concluded with a smile, looking pleased with, even proud of, Neal's decision.

The ex-thief nodded. "So, what's your next question?"

"Do you have nightmares, or do you just keep the dream catcher because it reminds you of my mom?"

Again, he was somewhat surprised at the line of questioning the kid was taking. He was asking the hard, detailed questions, no the simple ones that Neal had suggested. Clearly, Henry was one smart kid. But of course he was, he was Emma's son. Emma had always been quick-thinking, resourceful, inventive, intelligent, and a great problem-solver and strategist. It was part of what had made them such a great team back in their 'Bonnie and Clyde' days.

Neal had to admit he was impressed with Henry. In only a few short days, he had learned that the kid was smart, intuitive, clever, compassionate, selfless and, much like Emma, a problem-solver and a strategist.

"Sometimes I have nightmares," Neal confessed. "But it's mostly just because it reminds me of what I like to call the good old days." He smiled softly, taking a moment to think once more about that day they had stumbled across the dream catcher; fly trap for nightmares. And then how they had decided on settling down somewhere. Tallahassee…

Henry smiled back at him, clearly loving getting to spend time getting to know his dad after all these years of never knowing who he was.

And then Henry's phone buzzed, vibrating against the mattress and causing Neal to look over at the kid. "Sorry," Henry apologized, pulling it out of his back pocket and flipping it open. "It's a text from Grams. I'd better get going," he said regretfully, sounding much to Neal like he wasn't anywhere near ready to leave yet.

A part of him regretted that Henry had to leave, too. He was really starting to like the kid and he hadn't even spent much time with him. Had he had this same effect on Emma? Was that how he had convinced Emma to come to and to stay in Storybrooke? Ruby had mentioned to him earlier that Henry had left town to find Emma and how Regina had been plagued with worry because her son had run away.

Despite knowing it was best if Henry left as the text must have suggested, Neal found himself visibly disappointed. "So soon?" he surprised even himself by asking.

Henry nodded. "Yeah. I asked Grams to try to cover for me, but mom will probably figure out what happened if I don't get back soon. Gram's isn't a very good liar and mom's practically a lie detector," he informed Neal, giving him a knowing look like the ex-thief was meant to pull out a notebook and take note of this.

But instead of doing anything of the sort, Neal simply grinned. Now that he thought about it, Emma had always seemed to have some sort of knack for knowing when people were telling the truth. She'd called the ability 'just a hunch' or 'a lucky guess' back then, but now she seemed to be calling herself a lie detector. Perhaps she had started that when she picked up that bounty hunter job that Ruby had told him she used to have before coming to Storybrooke and becoming the sheriff.

And who would've thought Emma Swan, ex-thief, would end up becoming the sheriff of some little town in Maine!

"If that's the case, then I guess it really would be best for you to get a move on, bud," Neal said, draping an arm over Henry's shoulder and leading him to the door. "Do you need me to drive you home?" he asked, realizing that it might be a tad too far for Henry to walk home, especially by himself.

Henry shook his head. "No, our place isn't far from here," he assured him. "It's okay, I do this kind of stuff all the time."

Neal raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you mean the walking around town by yourself or the sneaking around behind your mom's back?"

"Uh…the walking around town. I don't normally do anything behind Emma's back, but I _did _do a lot of stuff behind my other mom's back before the curse was broken. But that's because I was trying to get to know Emma and help her break the curse," Henry explained quickly, not wanting Neal to get the wrong idea.

"So this is just one of those exceptions, then," Neal figured, looking a tad skeptical about Henry's excuse but not saying anything about it.

The ten-year-old gave one resolute nod. "Yes, exactly. Trust me, both of my moms and my grandparents are okay with it. Storybrooke's not that big a town and I know most of the people that live here, so I'll be safe."

"Alright, well if you say so then I suppose it's alright, kid. But let me give you my phone number just in case. If you for some reason get lost, get into some kind of trouble, or need help for any reason, feel free to call me. In fact, if you just feel the need to talk to me, that's fine, too," he told Henry as he grabbed a pen and a stack of post-it notes and scribbled his number down. He ripped off the square sheet of paper and handed it to his son before opening the door for him and leading him out.

Henry's bright brown eyes glanced down at the paper and then back up at Neal, looking absolutely thrilled to have his phone number and to have gotten this chance to speak with him privately. "Thanks. I'll do that," he promised, and then he suddenly turned to face him and wrapped his arms around him.

At first too surprised to comprehend what was going on, Neal stared down at his son, unsure about how to react. And then a warm glow spread over his chest and caused him to pull Henry in closer, hugging him back.

"I'm glad you decided to come," Henry mumbled into Neal's shirt.

Neal grinned. "Me, too. I'm glad I got to meet you."

Henry pulled back, absolutely beaming up at Neal as he did. "I'll see you soon. Don't forget to tell me what's happening with Operation Bug!"

"Operation Bug?"

"It's the codename for our plan for you to win my mom back," Henry explained as if it were as clear as day.

"Right," Neal said slowly, nodding. "Why Operation Bug?"

"Because you and my mom first met in that yellow bug she drives."

Neal grinned. "You're a clever kid, Henry," he said, ruffling his son's dark hair. "I'll keep you updated on Operation Bug, I promise. But remember, I don't want you getting too involved in this, okay? Your mom won't like it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to kill me."

"I know. Don't worry, I won't," Henry assured him, and then with a wave and a hasty goodbye, the kid was down the steps down the hall and gone.

As Henry exited Granny's inn, he could hardly contain his excitement. He had gotten to talk to his dad one on one at last and they had initiated Operation Bug. It was only just the beginning, but Henry felt like he was one step closer to bringing his parents back together. His father had said love was a tricky thing, but he had never said it was impossible. And while he had had experience with it, he didn't understand love like Henry did.

* * *

**A/N: **How'd you guys like chapter 9? Did you like the Neal/Henry bonding? I feel like Neal's the kind of guy who's good with kids but he doesn't really know how to be a parent and might feel a tad overwhelmed, but at the same time he really wants to be a good role model, so I tried to make that show and I dunno how successful I was.

In case anyone's wondering why I haven't mentioned anyone being concerned about Henry's safety due to any impending threats, Cora and Hook haven't arrived in Storybrooke yet and as far as everyone including Snow and Emma are concerned, the pair are still in FTL and don't pose a threat yet. I think from what I've heard online on tumblr and such, Cora and Hook will be in Storybrooke starting in the first episode that picks up in January, but my head canon before learning that was that they'd landed somewhere that wasn't Storybrooke (given that the compass was supposed to guide them straight to Storybrooke and Emma and Snow took that with them), stole a ship from some port, and sailed to Storybrooke. So it would've taken a while for them to get there and this story takes place between the time Emma and Snow return and the time Hook and Cora arrive.

Anyways, that's my head canon which I know is AU at this point, but oh well. I wrote this before knowing anything about the second half of season 2. But putting that aside, let me know how you guys enjoyed the chapter! And the name for Henry's plan: Operation Bug. Like it or no? Heave a review and let me know, thanks!


	10. That Feeling You Can't Ignore

**A/N: **Oh God, I'm so sorry for leaving you all hanging for over a month! The holidays came and went and then I got back to school and so there was that...and then I just hit a MAJOR road block with this story and I just wasn't sure where to go next. This chapter took me AGES to write even though it's pathetically short (and not really my best, in my opinion). And that's another thing I'm really sorry for, but I just wanted to get it out there so that you all had something to read. Hopefully the next chapter will be up MUCH sooner than this one, but I don't want to guarantee anything. Especially since I'm starting Fire School on Tuesday and that'll be three times a week for several hours, particularly on Sundays. And that along with classes is going to eat up a lot of time. But I'll try my best, I swear, to get chapters out to you guys in a somewhat timely manner.

What I can almost safely guarantee is that the Henry shenanigans should officially start next chapter.

So without further adieu, here's the tenth installment of I Believe in Yesterday. I hope you enjoy it despite its brevity!

* * *

Four hours after Henry's visit, Neal got another knock on the door and was once again surprised at who the guest turned out to be. But after the initial shock wore off, Neal's lips were once again turning up into that goofy, lopsided grin of his. The one that used to make her smile right back in spite of herself, even when she was angry. It used to make her heart melt.

Standing in Neal's doorway and seeing that same grin again, Emma tried to tell herself she was just imagining that funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. It felt much too much like that heart melting sensation for her comfort.

"Em, what brings you here?"

"Can I—Can I come in?"

"Of course," Neal answered immediately, stepping aside to allow her inside.

She hesitantly walked into the room, looking around for a moment and spying the dream catcher still hanging on the bed post. "You kept it," she found herself saying, and then turned back to look at him, mouth slightly agape like she just realized she had made a terrible mistake. "I mean, not that—um…I just…" she trailed off, having no clue as to what to say.

"Of course I kept it. I haven't slept a day without it with me," he confessed, and he saw her eyes flash with recognition at what he was implying. "And speaking of old relics, I like what you did with the key chain. I'm glad you kept it all these years."

Emma's hand went up to touch the swan pendant, her eyes glancing down at it as she played with it between her fingers. "Yeah…yeah, I did," she muttered almost more to herself than to him. And then she shook her head, as if slipping out of some sort of trance, and looked back up at him. "Look, I'm not here to reminisce, Neal. I'm here about Henry."

Neal stiffened. Did she know Henry had come by to see him today? Was she going to tell him he wasn't allowed to have contact with him anymore? "Yeah? What about Henry?"

"I know he came to see you today—"

Neal put up his hands and quickly went into defense mode. "Em, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to get in between you two and cause any trouble, I just—"

Emma held up a hand to signal for him to stop. "Neal," she said firmly, trying to garner his attention and get him to stop rambling on. "Neal, I'm not upset, okay?" she insisted, and that caused him to stop and pause.

"You're not?" he asked, eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

She shook her head. "No, I'm not. In fact I came here to tell you that I told Henry that it's okay to see you. You're his father and it wouldn't be right for me to forbid him from getting to see you, talk to you, and get to know you now that he's got the chance. I might not like it all that much, but I can't deny him that right. Besides, even if I did want to forbid him, he'd find ways to slip past me and do it anyway. That's what he did to Regina when he first met me," Emma explained.

"Clever kid," Neal said with an amused grin. "So you really don't have a problem with me spending time with Henry?"

"As long as he lets me know where he's going and you're alright with it, yeah. I'm alright with it. Although if he's supposed to be at Regina's and you know he is, you'd better send him straight back to her place because while I'm allowing him to see you, Regina probably won't. And if she finds out that he snuck out to see you, it doesn't matter whether you knew or not because she won't be happy," Emma warned.

He nodded. Right, he definitely didn't want to piss off the Evil Queen. "Well anyways, I'm glad you're okay with it," he said in a light, appreciative tone. "Henry seems like a really great kid."

Emma grinned, pride twinkling in her eyes. "Yeah, he really is."

"Look at you being all proud and parental," Neal teased, and she tried to shoot him a sharp glare but it ended up looking like a reluctant smile. "Now that looks more like the Emma Swan I know. I knew she was in there somewhere," he added with that wrinkly-eyed smile that used to always make her heart flutter.

Her heart swelled a bit at the sight of that familiar grin, but she quickly shook it off. "Neal," she began in a more serious tone, and his face fell.

"Emma, I know how you must feel about my coming back into your life all of a sudden and I know you're afraid to get hurt again…"

"Oh no," she said, holding up her hands and shaking her head. "No, we are not having this conversation."

"I know you don't want to, but we need to have it, Emma. Look, I'm not trying to tell you how to feel or assume to know what you're feeling. I'm just trying to get you to listen to your own heart because you know you feel something but you're just too afraid to give into it because of what happened eleven years ago. But please, Emma," Neal said pleadingly, his soft eyes locking with her own fearfully reluctant ones, "This isn't about giving me a second chance; it's about giving yourself one. Because you deserve to be happy and something tells me you haven't exactly been happy since before that night eleven years ago."

Emma's eyes bored into his for a long moment and he watched as she weighed his words, her fear and hesitation obvious. She didn't want it all to be true; she wanted to shut her heart out again, but his reappearance had awakened a part of her that had been dormant for a long time. And now even when she tried to close those feelings off again, like an overstuffed suitcase with too many belongings to fit they just weren't budging.

But he was right; she hadn't been truly happy in ages. Sure, she was happy with her newfound family and with Henry, but she knew that wasn't the happiness he was talking about.

"I can't," she murmured at last, averting her eyes to the other end of the room, to the floor—anywhere but his face.

"Can't or won't?" Emma let out a long, troubled sigh. "Please," he begged, taking a step toward her and gingerly reaching out to take her hands in his.

Her eyes immediately flickered down to their intertwined hands before they flew back up to meet his. "Neal…" She wanted to pull away; to tell him to step away and mind her personal space. But she couldn't seem to form the words. In fact, the contact felt all too natural and she couldn't work up the nerve to take her hands from his.

So instead of pulling away, she just looked at him, thinking of the two years spent in Tallahassee; the yellow bug parked outside; the swan keychain that now hung from her neck. And the longer she stared into those familiar brown eyes, the more her heart seemed to flutter and quicken like it had when she was just seventeen and completely in love.

"Neal, I…I have to go." And before he could stop her, before he could protest or plead with her to wait and just talk to him, she had slipped her hands out of his and hurried out the door.

With a heavy sigh, Neal stepped back and collapsed onto the bed.

* * *

It was lucky for Emma that Charming and Henry had both already retired for the night by the time she got back to the apartment she shared with her family. Snow was only one still up and about, sitting on the couch in pajamas and reading a book.

Emma walked straight past her and into the kitchen, reaching up into one of the cabinets and pulling out a bottle of whiskey and a glass. Without a word, she plopped down at the counter and got to work with the ultimate goal to force down that warm, fuzzy feeling lingering from her encounter with Neal not half an hour ago.

Immediately able to tell that something was amiss, Snow set her book down and made her way to the opposite end of the counter. As Emma tilted her head back and gulped down a shot, Snow leaned forward, forearms against the surface of the counter, disapproval and concern written across her face.

As Emma set her glass down, she spied the look her mother was giving her and arched her brow at her. "What?"

"I thought you were done with the binging and running from your problems. I guess your chat with Neal didn't go quite as planned?"

"No, not exactly," Emma sighed, staring down at her glass.

"You want to tell me about it?" Snow asked.

"Not really, no," Emma grumbled, helping herself to another shot of whiskey, but then she glanced up at her mother and saw the disappointed, dejected look on her face like she was upset that she couldn't be trusted or confided in; like all that progress she and Emma had made was being undone. And that's when Emma changed her mind. "Alright, she slowly conceded, and then the words came pouring out of her mouth quickly before she could change her mind again. "I went and told him that I knew Henry came by to see him and that I was perfectly fine with them spending time and getting to know each other. But he had the dream catcher with him and he noticed the pendant I was wearing…and then he started talking about giving us another chance and…" She took a deep breath before continuing. "And I just panicked a bit because—"

"Because you started feeling something for him again," Snow finished for her, and Emma stared at her, looking somewhat surprised that her mother had known exactly what it was she was too embarrassed and reluctant to admit herself.

"Yes," she breathed before letting her head fall into her arms resting on the counter in front of her.

"Emma," Snow murmured empathetically, hurrying to her daughter's side and putting an arm around her shoulder. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's good that you feel something and you shouldn't be afraid of it."

Emma lifted her head a bit to gaze up at her mother with that rare look of vulnerability. "I know, I just…I know now that he's not the bad guy that I thought he was, but after eleven years of thinking that he was it's not so easy to change that idea of him. And what he did to me, even if he regrets it more than anything and even if there was more to the story than I thought, still hurt me more than anything," she told Snow, who nodded in understanding.

"I know, Emma. And no one's expecting you to automatically accept the truth and accept Neal back into your life. But I think you need to give both him and yourself another chance because you deserve to be happy and I think you can find that happiness with Neal. I understand how hard it might be for you, but you shouldn't ignore those feelings. You _can't _ignore those feelings. Trust me, I've tried," Snow said with a small smile, remembering how hard she had tried to forget about Charming; to make the pain of losing him to someone else go away.

"Yeah, and that's what sucks the most," Emma deadpanned with a frown. "I wish emotions were just something you could turn on and off like a light switch."

Snow chuckled. "I think we all feel that way sometimes."

She smiled a little. "Guess it's just too good to be true," she shrugged before the bottle of whiskey caught her eye again. She looked back over at Snow pleadingly. "One more glass?"

Her mother playfully narrowed her eyes at her, fighting back a grin because of the look on Emma's face and the way she was actually asking for permission to have another drink. She couldn't help but to say anything other than yes. "Alright," she conceded, and Emma grinned, grabbing the bottle of whiskey and ready to pour one more drink only for Snow to hold up a finger. Emma's grin turned into a childish frown. "I just have one condition," Snow said.

"Yeah? And what's that?" Emma asked, arching her brow at Snow.

"You need to promise yourself not to run from your feelings, and you need to promise me you'll take those walls of yours down if only just a little. Give the guy a chance not just for his sake, but for yours."

"Funny, that's exactly what he said."

"Then maybe he's a smarter guy than I give him credit for," Snow said thoughtfully. "Now do you agree?"

After a long moment of silence, Emma nodded. "Yeah, alright. I agree."

Snow smiled, feeling like she'd just made progress, while Emma helped herself to her last glass.

Meanwhile, an impishly grinning young ten-year-old turned back and headed to his room, thrilled to know that his suspicions had in fact been correct. His parents still did love each other. There was still hope.

* * *

**A/N: **Oops, looks like Henry's eavesdropping. Again. But how'd you guys like this second heart to heart between Emma and Snow and the conversation between Neal and Emma?

I feel like Snow was able to convince Emma to do exactly what Neal failed to convince her to do only because aside from Henry, Snow/Mary Margaret is the first person Emma's really gotten close to in years and grown to trust and open up to. Neal, on the other hand, no matter how much he might regret having done so, did break Emma's heart and her trust. His actions led to her building up stronger, higher walls than ever before and it took a lot for her family and new friends in Storybrooke to break back down. Even if he had a good reason and she knows the truth now, Emma's much more hesitant to trust Neal than she is to trust Snow.

So yeah. I know this wasn't very long, but hopefully it gave you guys something while I start to work on the next chapter which will hopefully be longer.

As always, drop me a message to let me know what you think! And thanks for reading!


	11. A Second Chance At Last

_A/N: Well, it's been...MUCH too long since the last chapter. I'm so, SO sorry everyone! I've been super busy and this chapter took me forever to write as a result although I started writing it back in the middle of February! But hopefully the fact that I think it's the longest, if not one of the longest, chapters yet makes up for that. And there's some stuff in here that I think you'll enjoy! Well, I'm hoping you do. Those of you who have been waiting for Henry's shenanigans and Operation Bug to come into play...your wait is over at last! _

_Obviously, this story is super AU now given what's going on in Once. Neal even has a fiance! Poor Emma! But anyways, just keep this in mind while you're reading because, at the time I was writing this, we knew MUCH less about Neal and who he was. _

_Also, someone asked me if I was going to throw Rumple into this and if I was going to address the Neal/Baelfire thing. The answer's no, because I would actually like to end this fanfic in a chapter or two (somehow) and by addressing that stuff, I'd end up making this story run a lot longer. Plus, I had been thinking about it earlier but at the time I started writing this people weren't so crazy about Neal being Bae and I myself was having mixed feelings about it (although I love the direction the show's taken with it!) so I opted out of writing that in. And now I feel it's a bit late to throw it in, not that I couldn't figure out a way. However, in this chapter I did make a reference or two to Neal being Bae, so see if you can spot those!_

_But I'm just really busy at the moment and would rather stick to writing one-shots if I'm going to write anything else for Once. And I'd like to get this story wrapped up rather than keep you all waiting for chapters for much too long. Because you're too wonderful to have to wait over a month for another chapter!_

_Anyways, enough of my blabbering. Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

The next morning, Emma awoke with a dull throbbing in her temples and slowly rose out of bed. Sitting up and rubbing her eyes, the first thing that came to her attention was how quiet it seemed. Normally she could hear Henry chattering away, the sounds of dishes clanking as Snow prepared breakfast, voices from the television…This morning she couldn't hear anything, which was a bit strange. Unless…

Noticing that it was more light outside than it should be around 7 am when she normally woke up, Emma's attention immediately gravitated toward the bedside table where she kept her phone. And on top of her phone was where she found the yellow post-it note.

Peeling it off of her phone, Emma saw that it was in David's rather loopy scrawl and carefully read it over.

_Emma,_

_Snow said you'd had a rough night and it looked_

_Like you could use the sleep, so I thought it best to head _

_To the station and let you come when you were ready. _

_Don't worry, I can handle the station alone for a few hours._

_Love, Dad_

_P.S. Henry said there's something on the counter _

_For you before you leave._

Emma winced at the way he signed the note. She really was trying to open up to this family thing, but even as much as she wanted it, it was still a bit tough for her. And seeing 'dad' written on the note just gave her all sorts of feelings that she just wasn't sure how to sort through and deal with quite yet.

But reading over the rest of the letter, Emma couldn't help but frown because apparently, they had all woken up, Snow had mentioned what had happened last night, and then they all decided to let her sleep in. She couldn't help but feel a little bit more annoyed than touched by the gesture. Just how long had they let her sleep in for? How late was it now, because it was most certainly past 7 given that everyone was already gone.

That's when her eyes landed on her phone again, and Emma quickly snatched it up and pressed the button to light up the screen, gasping when she read the time.

"It's 9:48?!" she exclaimed in alarm before jumping out of bed immediately and hastily changing into a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved shirt that was sitting nearby, and her usual red jacket. She was dressed and ready to go in under a minute, grabbing her keys and heading for the door when she passed by the kitchen and noticed something peculiar sitting there.

She had almost forgotten David's post script in his note, although when he had said Henry left something for her on the counter, she thought he had maybe meant leftovers from breakfast. But this certainly wasn't breakfast.

Sitting on the counter was a square of paper with a beautifully sketched swan drawn on it and her name written in the center, as well as a single red rose with a little yellow ribbon tied in a neat bow around the stem. Emma stopped dead, staring at them for the longest time in surprise.

And then slowly she stepped forward and reached out to gently pick up the rose, almost afraid to touch it. Because this gift had Neal Cassidy written all over it, as this was one of those simple yet romantic gestures (with, as always, an added personal touch) that he always favored doing. She used to always tease him for it, telling him that his gifts were cheesy and cliché; but he knew as well as she did that she adored every single gift.

It was just a rose with a yellow bow, but as she held it up to examine it and take a moment to take in its scent, Emma found the memories flooding back.

"_Neal, where on earth are we going? We've been driving for over an hour and I'm getting _really _sick of wearing this stupid blindfold," Emma whined from the passenger seat, fussing for the umpteenth time with the blue and white polka dotted blindfold over her eyes._

"_I'm sorry, it's just a little further, I promise, Em," he said, glancing over at her to see her messing with the blindfold and gently swatting her hands away. "No, you can't take it off yet!" he cried, and Emma pouted and crossed her arms over her chest._

"_Fine. But whatever this surprise is better be worth it," she huffed._

"_Don't worry, it is," Neal assured her with a grin. He could hardly wait to see her face when they got to their destination. She was going to love it._

_Sure enough, Neal slowed their little yellow bug down and shut off the engine half an hour later._

"_Are we here?" Emma asked, her hands at the blindfold, ready to pull it off._

"_Yes, but you still can't take the blindfold off. Not quite yet," he said before opening the door and stepping out of the car._

"_Hey, you're not leaving me here, are you?" she called, hearing him step out._

"_Course not, babe. Just be patient!" he called back, chuckling at how anxious she was. His own anxiousness was growing, too, as he was just moments away from seeing her reaction. As Emma waited with her arms still folded, Neal went to the trunk and grabbed the blanket and simple little picnic basket with a small surprise inside that he had stored there earlier. And with these in his possession, Neal ran off past the bug and set them up in what he thought to be the perfect spot before running back to Emma's side of the car and opening the door for her. "You ready?" he asked._

"_Am I ever," she said with an exaggerated sigh, and Neal amusedly rolled his eyes at her. Not that she could see what he was doing. _

"_Give me your hand," he instructed, and with a look of curiosity that even a blindfold couldn't hide, Emma reached out and put her hand in his and let him help her out of her seat. He then stepped behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, guiding her forward as she continued to ask questions and complain about how much she hated not being able to see anything._

_But as they got away from their bug, Emma felt the ground beneath her change from solid asphalt to something softer like… "Are we walking on sand?" she asked, her head turning toward him._

"_Maybe…maybe not. You'll just have to wait a minute and find out," Neal answered with a grin on his face._

"_No, we're definitely walking on sand. We're on a beach, aren't we?" she persisted, beginning to grow more excited than impatient._

"_Of course we're not on a beach, Em. Why would we be on a beach?"_

"_Oh, don't you try to fool me. I'm onto you, mister"_

"_I'm not trying to fool you," Neal said, sounding much too guilty._

"_You forget that I've got the ability to sense when people are full of crap and you, Neal Cassidy, are definitely full of it," Emma scolded, but he could see the smile playing on her lips._

"_Okay, okay. Fine, you caught me," Neal surrendered as he had them come to a stop and he pulled the blindfold off of her at last. And then he watched with his own crinkly-eyed, delighted grin as her face lit up and the smile that had been tugging at her lips moments ago grew into a beaming grin._

_Before them was the sprawled out blanket and the picnic basket set atop it and opened for her to see the dark wine bottle, wine glasses, and Apollo bars peeking out. And beyond that was the rolling, dark waves of the ocean and the most beautiful night sky Emma had ever seen complete with a glowing full moon that illuminated it all perfectly._

_ And then, just as she always did, Emma turned to him with a smirk and a roll of the eyes. "Honestly, Neal, you are the most cheesy, overly romantic boyfriend in the universe," she teased._

_ Neal grinned, mirth and moonlight twinkling in his eyes. "But you'll still have me, right? I mean, I did go through all this trouble to make sure everything was perfect…"_

_ Emma put a finger to her chin and pretended to take a moment to contemplate it. "Well it is perfect, but…I think I'll still need some time to think about it," she said rather seriously before they both simultaneously broke out into a fit of laughter. "Come on, Mr. Perfect, I think you've stalled long enough," she said through giggles, taking his hand and pulling him along._

Shaking her head, Emma set the rose down in haste, as if it might actually help to rid her of the memories. And before she could let her mind linger on the rose or the past any longer, she was out the door.

She was just hopping into her car, however, when David called and informed her of a situation that was brewing over at some clothing store on Main Street. Of course, before they had even begun talking sheriff business, she had made it clear to him that she wasn't thrilled about his and the rest of her family's decision to let her sleep in.

David had naturally offered to take care of the problem himself, but Emma had insisted that she was closer and that she had already missed several hours of the job. She wanted to take this one; make up for her tardiness. Besides, it sounded like the call was about a petty cat fight between a couple of women, and she figured she might be better at this sort of thing than her father would be. Figuring she had a point, David had agreed to let her handle the situation. After meeting him briefly at the station—only long enough for her to grab the police cruiser and for him to remind her to call if she needed back up—Emma gave David a quick farewell, promised to see him later at home, and headed out to restore order in Storybrooke.

* * *

The cat fight in the store had ended up being a fight between—of all people in town—Cinderella's two stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella, as well as their mother and a saleswoman who had simply been trying to break up the argument. After breaking up the fight, it had taken Emma nearly an hour to get the girls to calm down, explain what happened, and get them cuffed and down to the station, as the three women had insisted that they were above and beyond the law and refused to even acknowledge Emma's authority.

David was at the station when she arrived and assisted her with filing the report and citing the women with public disturbance, assault (one of them had hit the saleswomen rather severely in the face), and damage to property (as they had destroyed the handbag they had been fighting over). Emma told the terrible trio they had two weeks to pay a fine and make up the cost of the bag and eagerly sent them on their way as they grumbled incessantly.

Normally the sheriff's station wasn't even this busy, but as luck would have it, not long after the ugly stepsisters call they got another one involving an old man who believed he had been robbed. Emma and her deputy had visited the home, determined that nothing was missing except the man's sanity, and left.

They had planned on heading straight back to the station, but after a glance over at Emma, David seemed to have decided a pick me up was in order and stopped at Granny's to grab a couple coffees. And as they were heading out, someone bumped into David and his coffee went tumbling to the ground and splattering all over his pants and jacket. Seeing that he would clearly need a change of clothes, she dropped him off at the apartment and headed back to the station while he went and changed.

Which was how she found herself sitting at the station alone nearly an hour later, wondering how long it took a man to find a fresh set of clothes and come back.

Emma picked up her phone and made a third attempt to call him. She had tried two times about already and with no success, and now she was growing not only confused but concerned. Had he somehow run into trouble on the way back? What could possibly be taking him so long?

But luckily, she didn't need to worry any longer, as she didn't get his voice mail this time. "Hello?"

Emma leaned back in her chair and sighed. "Well it's about time you answered. Are you having trouble finding a matching top or something? If you want, you can send me pics and I'll give you my honest opinion."

"No thanks," David grumbled back, and Emma let out loud laugh, smirking at his very unamused tone of voice and imagining the scowl he must be wearing right now. "Actually, I met up with Snow and Henry back at the apartment and they wanted to go out to dinner tonight. There's this new place that opened up called Tiara's or something and she and Henry want to check it out."

"Well as soon as it's time to close up shop in a couple hours, I'll be home and we can all head out. I could use a good meal after the busy day we've had."

"Want me to head back there and help out at all?"

"No, it's fine. Why don't you and Henry get some sword practice in, instead?" she suggested, knowing that he and Henry had taken to having sword fighting lessons every couple of days after school.

"That's a great idea. I'm sure he'd love that," he answered with a smile. "I'll see you in a few hours, then," he added, and with that she hung up and spent the next couple hours finishing up paperwork and answering a few phone calls. Before she knew it, it was time to close up the station and head home, and she was looking forward to a good meal that didn't require any preparation on her part.

When she arrived home, Mary Margaret and David were sitting on the couch together talking and turned their heads with smiles on their faces as they greeted her. A moment later, Henry scampered out of his room in a huff of breath. Emma assumed it must've had something to do with his training with Gramps; perhaps they had only recently gotten back home.

But there was also something funny about the way he looked when he spotted her; like he was planning something and didn't want her to find out...? But Henry quickly composed himself as he ran up to her and gave her hug. "Hi, mom! Gramps told me you guys had a tough day at the station today."

"Well it was definitely a bit busier than usual with the ugly stepsisters and all," she said, ruffling his hair affectionately after hugging him.

"You really met Cinderella's stepsisters?"

Emma nodded. "Yeah, and they're just as terrible as you'd think they are," she assured him, and Henry's nose scrunched up in distaste in a way that made her chuckle. "That's exactly what I thought, kid. You hungry?"

"Starved."

"Worked up an appetite from training with David, huh?" Henry smiled and nodded in response, and Emma smiled. It was good to know that the two were bonding so well. "Well how about I go take a quick shower and get changed and we'll be out before you know it."

"Sounds great," Henry answered, and Emma ruffled his hair again for a moment before heading down the hall to the shower.

As promised, she made it quick, and it only took her fifteen minutes to blow dry her hair and then grab something from her closet. She chose a navy blue dress that, while Emma was only somewhat partial toward, she knew her mother loved. After all, her mother—well, Mary Margaret, rather—had bought it for her. Before the curse had broken, Mary Margaret had insisted on going on a shopping trip together and despite Emma's protests, Mary Margaret had gotten her to try the dress on and even bought it for her when she saw how good it looked on her.

_"Oh, Emma, it looks lovely! You should really buy it!" _

_ "Mare, you know I'm not a dress and lace kind of girl."_

_ "You never know when you might need to or want to wear it. Come on, I'll even buy it for you."_

_ "No, you can't do that!"_

_ "Sure I can. Just watch me," Mary Margaret said, taking the dress out of Emma's outstretched hand and bringing it to the check out before Emma could make any further protests. And before she could stop her, the cashier had rung it up and Mary Margaret was already pulling out her wallet to pay for it. _

Emma had had every chance to return the thing, but she had never quite managed to do it. It's not like she'd ever worn it, but she couldn't bring herself to bring it back to the store, either. She almost felt like it would be a betrayal and that Mary Margaret might somehow check Emma's closet and find out.

But it turned out her then-roommate had been right. She had finally found a chance to wear it and Emma almost couldn't wait to see Mary Margaret's face when she saw her enter the living room and wearing it out to dinner.

However it seemed her mother, father, and son weren't anywhere to be found when she stepped out of her room. In fact, everything seemed eerily quiet, and Emma scrunched her brow in confusion as her eyes landed on the dining table with a red tablecloth thrown over it along with a couple of candles and a small vase with a rose in it.

Emma approached it, her confusion only mounting as she noticed the two sets of plates, bowls, and silverware at the table as well as the lidded bowl of salad and the giant silver platter sitting between them.

"What the hell—?" she began, but paused when she heard a knock on the door.

Head snapping toward the sound, Emma stepped away from the table to open the door, wondering who it could be, and gasped when she found out who it was.

"Neal?!"

"Emma." He glanced down at the dress she was wearing and swallowed. "You look beautiful."

Emma blushed and sputtered for a moment as she lost track of her thoughts. "I, uh…thanks…but what are you doing here?"

"Henry. He said you guys invited me over for dinner?" He said, although he sounded like he was beginning to doubt the validity of what his son had told him.

Emma slowly shook her head and began to think back to Henry's strange actions, the absence of the rest of her family, the fancy dinner set-up… "No…Oh, God, no."

"Don't tell me—"

"Not again…!"

"Please tell me he didn't—"

"I'm afraid he did…"

"Our son set us up, didn't he?"

Emma nodded and groaned as she put her face in her hands. She really couldn't believe that Henry had actually gone under her nose and _planned _all of this, no doubt with the help of her parents, without her figuring it out! God, how had she not seen this coming?

Neal heaved a sigh and threw his head back as he realized what must have led Henry to do this. "This is my fault. I told him I was trying to win you back…"

"Yeah, obviously. Speaking of which, I saw the little gift you left on the counter this morning. Your sketching skills are still…really amazing," she admits quietly, feeling a little flushed as she remembers the gift she had seen first thing this morning.

Neal smiles softly. "Yeah, it's still a hobby of mine," he answers. "So you liked it, then."

"I…" Eleven years ago, her heart would've swelled at the sight of it, but of course she would've rolled her eyes when he asked and told him he was the mushiest guy on earth. This morning, it had made her throat constrict as she thought of the past. And she had continued to think about it intermittently all day, as well. Not that she was about to admit any of that to Neal.

Neal seemed to take her silence as a confirmation, his smile turning into a confident smirk.

_Damn that grin of his. _Emma sighed and opened the door a little wider. "Neal, why don't you…why don't you come inside?" she suggested, not missing the brief look of surprise that crossed his face at the invitation. But he eagerly stepped inside, taking a look around and immediately spotting the elaborately set up table nearby.

"Kid do that all by himself?" he wondered, turning to Emma to see what she thought.

"No. My parents clearly helped," she said, knowing that the pair of them clearly must've helped Henry set all this up while she was away from home and in the shower. He had to have had help in order to pull all this off so fast.

"They seem pretty nice. Well, your mom does. Not so sure about your dad…"

"I still don't really know him all that well, but I'm gathering that he's one of those overprotective types."

"Are you kidding? He wouldn't stop giving me the evil eye all night that night I spent in the sheriff's station," Neal said, and that had Emma laughing as she imagined how awkward a night it must've been for the pair of them. Although she still thought he deserved it for the shit he'd put her through, apology or no.

"Speaking of parents, I'm not saying that I'm entirely comfortable with…you know, this," she said, referring to the two of them, "but Mary Margaret's convinced me to give you a second chance."

"She did?" _God bless Mary Margaret,_ Neal thought to himself, making a mental note to thank the woman for getting Emma to give him of all people another shot.

"Yeah. And I'd hate to let all her cooking go to waste…" Emma said, glancing over at the table and wondering exactly what it was Snow had made for them.

"Are you sure? Because I don't have to stay if you're not comfortable. I don't want to make you rush into anything," Neal began, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder in a gesture toward the door.

"No!" Emma said, holding up a hand in protest, and she paused a moment, surprised with herself. She had meant to stop him and object, but she hadn't meant to do it so vehemently. Neal raised a curious eyebrow at her, but said nothing, instead waiting for her to continue. "No, I…I want you to stay," she confessed. She had promised to give him another shot and…well, maybe there was a part of her that wanted him to stay.

Neal grinned, and Emma once again damned that impish little grin of his to hell as she tried to pretend she didn't feel that fluttery feeling in her stomach at the sight of it.

As she took her seat and Neal took his across the table from her, Emma tried all the more to shake the feeling off, but it the feeling only seemed to be growing the more she dwelled on it. And so she averted her attention to the dinner in front of them.

Not long into the meal, the pair of them found themselves conversing more comfortably and more freely, almost like they had picked up where they left off. Emma, surprisingly, did quite a bit of the talking, as most of it was about Henry. He was, after all, the only common ground between them that wasn't a touchy subject.

After they finished eating, the pair worked together to clean the dishes and silverware. It seemed like the least they could do for Snow after the meal she had created for them. When that was done, Emma took a glance at the clock and wondered how soon her family would be back. She assumed they had gone out to dinner after all, whether it be to Granny's or that other place David had mentioned earlier. If it even existed.

It seemed they had figured she might be wondering that, as when she picked up her phone she found that she had a text from Snow saying that they had finished dinner and gone to see a movie.

"Well, I guess they're not coming home any time soon," Emma said, and Neal looked up at her. "They're seeing a movie," she explained.

"Are you anxious for them to get back?"

Emma paused and considered the question for a moment, surprised to find that the answer was no. No, she was glad to know they wouldn't be back for a while longer, because she didn't think she was quite ready for Neal to leave yet. "Well, no…" she reluctantly confessed. "Do you want a cup of cocoa?"

"What?" he asked, as the change in subject and her demeanor had been rather sudden.

"Cocoa. Want any?"

"Uh, sure," Neal said with a shrug. "Hey, do you still do that thing with the cinnamon?" he asked with a laugh, and Emma grinned back at him.

"Of course I do," she said, like the answer was obvious. What's hot cocoa without it?"

"Umm…hot cocoa?" Neal answered, eyebrows crinkled but his eyes sparkling with mirth.

"Shut up," Emma said, frowning at him one moment and then breaking into a laugh not a second later as she turned to prepare their drinks.

Silence fell between them then as Neal leaned against the counter patiently and Emma prepared two mugs. But as she began mixing cream into the mugs, she paused and put her hands on the counter. Neal watched her, puzzled and a little concerned. He was just opening his mouth to say something to check if she was alright when she turned around to face him, folding her arms over her chest.

Emma appeared uncertain and hesitant, like she had something to say but she wasn't sure if she should actually say it. He was once again about to open his mouth and ask if she was alright when finally she spoke and when she did, her words came as a surprise to him.

"Did you know that even after what you did, as soon as I got out of prison I spent two years in Tallahassee?" she said, and Neal's eyes glossed over with pain and regret before she squeezed them shut and hung his head down.

"Em, I—"

"Part of me was hoping you'd come back so I could punch you in the face and hand you over to the cops, but…but part of me was hoping you'd come back and tell me that it was all a misunderstanding or something; that you still loved me and we could go back to the way things were between us before everything turned to crap." Emma smiled sadly and looked down at the kitchen tiles, shaking her head.

Neal watched her, the ache in his chest growing the longer he listened. He wanted to say something, but what more could he really say? He could tell her he was sorry a thousand times and then another ten thousand more and it still wouldn't be enough.

"Those two years in Tallahassee were the longest I've stayed anywhere, but even after moving on from there, I never stopped hoping you'd show up somehow. I told myself I never wanted to see you again, but every time I saw a dream catcher or looked at that swan keychain or…or, God, when Henry showed up at my apartment—whenever there was something that reminded me of you, I got this ache in my chest. But I don't think it was because I hated you but because I was always thinking of what I had with you. What we could've had if you'd stayed…"

"I'm sorry, Emma, and I know I can never say it enough—"

"Neal, stop! Just be quiet for one minute because I'm trying to tell you that I still feel something for you!" Emma shouted at him before he could keep going, and Neal's eyes widened. Of course he'd known she felt something for him for a while, but for her to finally admit it? That was huge. He didn't even know what to say in response to that.

Emma sighed and stepped forward, waving her arms. "I can't—It's so _frustrating_ because I keep trying to tell myself that this is the stupidest thing ever going back to the guy who broke my heart, but ever since I saw you again I've gotten the same tingling feeling when I'm around you and the same butterflies when you smile that I did when we first met. And I've been trying to ignore them but I just can't."

Neal took a step toward her, making them now in rather close proximity to one another. "So…you're saying that…"

"I'm saying that I'm not just giving you a second chance because Mary Margaret asked me to or because Henry set us up but because _I _want to give you a second chance. Because I still haven't stopped hoping for just that," she answered, and then, to his complete shock, she slowly leaned in and kissed him.

He responded by immediately kissing her back, one arm wrapping around her waist and his free hand cupping her face until he felt her hands press against his chest and hold onto his shirt like she was clutching onto him to make sure he didn't go anywhere. That's when his hand found its way to hers and grasped them gently, holding them close to his heart until she pulled away.

Emma ended the kiss and leaned away from him, breathless and scared but overwhelmed with a sudden outpour of pure, raw emotion. Her eyes focused on Neal as silence feel between them and her mind reeled over the kiss they had just shared. It was almost nothing like any of the kisses they had shared before, but at the same time his touch was still so familiar. It was as gentle but passionate as it had been before, and it both thrilled her and scared her to realize she had enjoyed it so much.

Finally she broke her gaze as she realized they were still holding hands, clutching onto each other almost for dear life. Yet she didn't pull her hands away, but rather squeezed his hands and looked back into those soft dark eyes of his. And then she let out a breathy, shaky laugh, smiling a little as she noticed the glee in his eyes. Slowly, a grin spread over his face as well.

"I never thought I'd get to kiss you again," he said.

"I never thought I'd want to again," she answered, and then he pulled her toward him and kissed her. This time she was a bit less scared as she wrapped her arms around his neck and he put his hands on her waist to bring her close once more.

That was how her family found them as they walked through the door and froze in place, Snow holding a hand over her heart and letting out a soft cry while Charming stared at the two of them looking like he'd just been hit by a bus, surprised and horrified at the same time.

And then there was Henry, who stared wide-eyed at the scene for a moment before grinning madly and crying out, "Yes!" as he pumped his fist into the air.

Hearing that familiar little voice, Emma and Neal fumbled as they hastily broke apart from the other's embrace, both turning a rather furious shade of red at being caught by not only Henry, but Emma's parents, as well.

Emma opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying and failing to say something to explain what her family had just walked in on. "I um—we were—Oh God." She glanced frantically over at Neal, who gave her a quick glance that read, "Don't ask me!" before awkwardly turning his head and running a hand through his hair.

A little less shell-shocked than a moment ago, Charming folded his arms. "Well, I see dinner went well."

* * *

_A/N: I don't know where I got the idea of Neal being a simple but cheesy romantic, but I just feel like he's that kind of guy. I could be wrong, but that's just my personal theory. I hope you liked the flashback with him and Emma as well as the little gift he sent Emma! And I hope this chapter lived up to your expectations and was worth the wait! I apologize if there are any typos or other mistakes, as I didn't go back and read this. I was really anxious to get it out to you guys before I had to wait any longer to publish it. But if you spot an error, let me know and I'll go back and fix it! Thanks!_

_Let me know what you thought of the dinner and the romantic scene between Emma and Neal at the end of the chapter! I hope it seemed alright to you guys, as I'm not sure how good I am at writing romance scenes. Feedback of any kind, as long as it's not spiteful, searing flames of hate, is welcome! And as always, I love, love, love reviews!_

_Also, this is just another heads up that I'm going to be trying to tie this story up in a chapter or two._

_Thanks again for reading, reviewing, and following this story! I'm still so thrilled to see the response this fic has gotten and continues to receive!_

_Until next time!_


	12. Simplicity

**A/N: **So it's been about three months with no update, as I've had a lot going on and I honestly had no clue how to end this story. I'm so sorry for making you all wait, assuming that you're still somewhere waiting for this at all. But I've finally thought up a way to end it and whether you like it or not, I'm glad I've finally finished it. Thank you to every single person who followed, favorited, and reviewed this story! It's been such a huge success that I totally wasn't expecting and I couldn't be more grateful.

Thank you!

A quick warning about this final chapter: It's short, and it also has spoilers for the finale of the second season of Once.

You're all probably going to hate me after reading this, so I'm just going to quickly run off and hide while I still can. Have fun reading!

* * *

A week after Henry's Parent Trap stunt, Neal finds himself sitting beside Emma on the couch watching a movie, arm casually draped across her shoulders. Henry is sitting next to him, leaning into the crook of his shoulder. Neal couldn't imagine himself being any happier.

He'd always enjoyed the simple moments in life. Even when he was a child back in the Enchanted Forest, simply sitting at the table for dinner with his parents or taking a stroll with his Papa—

Wait a minute…he'd never lived in the Enchanted Forest! No, perhaps Emma's parents came from there and perhaps Emma had been born there, but Neal had never even been there!

"Hey, you okay?" Emma asks gently, turning away from watching the sweet montage of father/son bonding going on between Jim Hawkins and John Silver to eye him warily.

"What?" Neal shakes his head and blinks a few times before glancing over at her and feeling instanteously guilty when he sees the flash of concern in her soft eyes in the dim light of the living room. "Yeah…" he assures her rather unconvincingly. When he realizes just how unconvincing it sounds, he tries again. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about something," he says, but he can see in her eyes that she doesn't quite believe him.

Emma and her lie detecting super power have good reason to. He doesn't believe himself, either.

There's no further discussion, however, as Henry chooses then to pipe up perturbedly, "I'm glad you guys are happy and together again, but if you don't stop talking you're gonna miss part of the movie!"

The both of them quickly apologize and quiet down, and that ends the conversation between the adults until later on in the movie. Despite his best efforts, Neal finds himself dozing off and the fourth time his head droops onto Emma's shoulder is when she looks over at him and says something about it.

"Hey, you better not be falling asleep on me. I'm not watching the animated,futuristic, Disney-fied version of Treasure Island with Henry alone," she says rather sternly, but no matter how tired he is, Neal is an expert at catching the affection masked beneath that sternness.

"Don't worry," he tells her with that soft, warm smile of his that melts her heart every time without fail, "I'm not falling asleep on you. Wouldn't dream of it."

But nonetheless he begins to nod off again not five minutes later.

"Neal," he hears Emma whisper, but his eyes have fluttered shut and it takes too much effort to even begin to try to answer her.

"Neal," she says a little more loudly, and perhaps Henry has turned to scold them again for chatting during the movie but Neal doesn't hear him. Even Emma's voice is beginning to grow distant.

"Neal?" Emma says again, but this time more in the form of a question. And there's something that's off about her voice, too…

When she calls out to him again, voice thick with worry and concern, he thinks he's figured it out.

For a fourth or fifth time she repeats his name, but instead of growing fainter her voice begins to grow louder and that's when he becomes sure of what it is that's so off about Emma's voice, and that's because it's not Emma's voice at all.

It's the voice of someone he barely knows. He's hardly been conscious long enough to get to know her. But when Sleeping Beauty and her boyfriend, accompanied by Mulan of all people, rescue you from the brink of death after being shot and falling through a portal, you get to recognize them pretty fast.

And he realizes now that it's Aurora's voice that's calling out to him. It's the cool, salty breeze of the nearby shores that he begins to feel and smell; along with the thick, smoky smell of the campfire that's burning not far from where he's lying.

Slowly, he opens his heavy eyes and blearily looks up to see Aurora leaning over him with a wet compress pressed to his forehead.

"Neal, thank goodness," she sighs with relief. "I was afraid you might be succumbing to your fever."

"Fever?" he asks, voice harsh and scratchy from lack of recent use amongst the many other issues he's got going on right now. He knows he's in absolutely terrible shape.

"Yes," Aurora gently tells him, "You've been feverish for about a week and we'd been hoping it'd break by now. Mulan left yesterday in hopes of finding something to better help you recover, but I can't say when she'll be back. You'll have to hold on for now."

He nods to show he understands, but he's far from comprehending it all. He's still struggling to even comprehend his survival of the fall through the portal the magic bean made and the gunshot wound he received back in Storybrooke.

"What were you dreaming about?" Aurora suddenly asks, and Neal shakes himself out of his reverie to give her all the attention he can afford in his weakened, fever-ridden condition. "I thought I heard you mention Emma."

"Emma," he echoes fondly, but then his expression darkens as he remembers the dream he'd had. None of it had been real. He had never come to her door; never been locked away in Storybrooke's prison; never fought with August or seen August get his just deserts for what he'd done to Emma, her family, and Neal himself.

They had never gotten to go on a date and been able to kiss.

The dream had been so incredibly vivid, but it had all been a lie he had conjured up for himself. For he was from the Enchanted Forest. He used to have a family there before it was torn apart and ripped away from him with the death of his mother and the slow transformation of his father into a monster he hardly knew. And he had then tried to rid them both of the beast only for him to wind up alone in an unfamiliar world.

Neal Cassidy wasn't some ordinary man who had fallen in love with a beautiful blonde woman only to abandon her and break her heart so she could find her way home.

No, Neal Cassidy was a man who had lived for centuries. A man who had traveled between several worlds in an attempt to escape what had ruined his father and his family only to wind back up where it all began: The Enchanted Forest.

If only the dream could've been real. If only it could've all been so simple.

"You were dreaming about her, weren't you?"

Looking back up at Aurora's kind eyes, he nods. "I wish it hadn't been just a dream. It wasn't complex and screwed up to the point of giving me a migraine like reality has been lately."

"I'm sorry," Aurora quietly replies. "And don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fixed up and good as new soon. And then we can help you on your quest to get back to Emma and Henry."

"I hope you're right."

"If there's one thing I tend to be right about, it's that love finds a way. Cheesy as it sounds. It happened to me and Philip, and I know it'll happen to you and Emma, too."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Any time. Now get some rest."

He nods a little and watches as the brunette dips a cloth back into the small bowl she has sitting nearby and rings it out. She places it back on his brow and he lets out a sigh at the cool touch on his burning face.

And before he knows it he's out again, dreaming of a yesterday from years ago involving a little yellow car and a pretty blonde with her hair tied back in a ponytail.

* * *

**A/N: **Again, thank you all for your support and for helping with the success of this story! It's been wonderful writing it and seeing all of your reactions to it! Also, once more I apologize for how short this last chapter is. If I tried to make it longer, who knows how much longer you'd all be waiting for.

To answer a few questions: No, this wasn't my plan from the beginning. In fact, I just got the initial idea of Neal showing up at Emma's door and that was it. I just kind of ran with it all from there!

But after getting this idea I thought it'd work well because it would explain why Neal wasn't Bae, why a couple other things weren't happening-and I'm sorry, I just couldn't miss the opportunity!

I'm sorry if I broke anyone's heart! But go ahead, let the fruit and vegetable tossing and the angry mob formations begin.


End file.
